Selected Resources

Guide to Historical Research in Communications

The following are library databases that you can use to find secondary sources for research papers on US history and communications topics. Each of these sources contains scholarly journal articles, but may also contain non-scholarly periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, or books. All the databases can be found in the E-Resources Gateway on the UW Libraries home page and can be accessed both in the library and remotely from your own computer when you log in with your NetID.

Finding Secondary Sources

  • America: History and Life: Search more than 1700 social science and humanities journals covering US and Canadian history, along with relevant books reviews and dissertations.
    • Using the Keywords will search all parts of the entry, including the title, subject headings and full text. This will give you a much broader search and more results
    • Searching the Subject Terms fieldd will only search within the subject headings and will give you much narrower serach results
    • Use the Expand button on the bottom right of each record to view more details
    • Use the Find It button to locate a copy of the article online or in a library
  • JSTOR: Contains the full text of more than 500 journals, covering a broad range of topics, incluidng the social sciences, humanities, biological sciences and business.
    • The Basic Search will search all fields and may produce a very large number of results
    • Use the Advanced Search for more precise results and to limit seaching to journal articles or to a particular topic
    • Click on the title of the article to view it in full text
  • Communications and Mass Media Complete: An extensive database covering all areas of communications and media
    • The database will open to the Advanced Search screen, which allows you to choose which parts of the article to search
    • The Basic Search searches all fields, but still allows you to set limits. You can limit results to full text or to scholarly journals only
    • Some articles are available in full text online - click on the HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text link to open the full text of the article. If it is not available, use the Find It buttong to find the article in another database or in a library
  • More Hints
    • Remember that there are many more databases beyonnd those listed above. Go to the E-Resources Gateway and click the By Subject tab. There you will find listings for both History and Communications/Media. Check them both for more options.
    • Check the notes and bibliographies of secondary sources to find primary sources the authors have used - they may help you too
    • Not sure if an article is scholarly? Check out this guide to identifying scholarly resources

Finding Primary Sources

  • America's Historical Newspapers: This new resource allows you to search or browse American newspapers from all fifty states, dating from 1690 to 1920.
    • From the front page, you can choose to search either the full text of documents or just the headline. If you need to search more than one term, click Add Search Field
    • You can also limit your search to a particular presidency or time period, by checking the box next to each period of interest
    • Click on the Newspaper Titles tab to find a complete list of the newspapers avaialbe and the time periods covered. Click on the title of a newspaper to browse the issues, or use the search box to search just the paper you're interested in
  • Reader's Guide Retrospective: Search the citations for more than 500 popular, "e;general interest periodicals"e; from 1890 to 1983. Examples include Harper's, Ladies' Home Journal, and The Nation
    • Search results will only display citation information. Click on the Find It - UW Madison link at the top of each record to locate a copy of the article, either online or in a library
    • The advanced search will automatically search all fields in a citation
  • Pro Quest Historical Newspapers: Pro Quest offers access to the Chicago Tribune(1849-1985), the Los Angeles Times (1881-1985) and the New York Times (1851-2002) in PDFs of the original newspaper.
    • Use the Date Range feature to search just a particular time period
    • The search fucntion will only search the citation information and the abstract, not the full text of the article
  • NewspaperARCHIVE: Search the full text, or browse more than 400 local newspapers from the US, the UK and Canada
    • Use the Basic Search on the first screen to search all newspapers or use the Advanced Search tab to limit your search to a particular newspaper or time period
    • Click on the Browse Available Newspapers to see a complete list of the papers available
    • From the results screen, click on the title of the article to view a PDF of the original paper

Primary Sources in Mad Cat and Beyond

Sometimes, the newspaper or periodical you want to look at will not be available online and you will have to find a physical copy. Many newspapers and magazines are available in paper or microform on campus, or in another library. You can find this information in Mad Cat and World Cat

Directions for finding newspapers and magazines in Mad Cat

  1. Go to Mad Cat
  2. Click on Basic Search
  3. Click on Journal Title (begins with) in the Search By menu
  4. In the text box, type the name of the journal or newspaper you want - remember to leave off first articles, such as a, an, or the - and click Search
  5. If the item is available, look at the results to see which campus library owns the item
  6. See the Campus Libraries page to find out where that library is
  7. If there are no results, the item may not be available on camopus. You will ahve to try searching for the item in World Cat and request that the information be sent here

Directions for finding newspaper and magazines in World Cat

  1. Go to World Cat
  2. In the box for Keyword Search, enter the newspaper or journal you need - remembering to leave off first articles like a, an or the - and click Search
  3. Once you have found the journal or newspaper, use the Get Through Library Express link to request that the newspaper be sent to the UW Campus for your use. This will work best when the item is available in microfilm or microfiche. You can view microfilms in the Microforms Media Center in Memorial Library. For more information about deliver, please see Library Express
  4. Remember that it can take some time, sometimes more than two weeks to obtain items through Library Express, so give yourself plenty of time before the assignment is due

Getting articles through Library Express

If you just need an article from a particular journal or newspaper that is not available on campus, you can use Article Delivery from Library Express. Log in to your account and then fill out a request for an article. This a free service for any periodical not available on the UW-Madison campus.

Getting Help

Don't hesitiate to ask for help if you run into trouble with your reserach or have any questions. There are many ways to get help

  • Contact Jessica Trumm, the PA Librarian at the Journalism Reading Room by email or phone.
  • Stop by the JRR in 2130 Vilas and ask at the desk
  • Get help from a UW-Libraries reference librarian: Ask a Librarian