Find Articles
- America History and Life This link opens in a new window Article abstracts and some full-text articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from the prehistoric era to the present, drawn from international periodicals from 1954 to the present.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window A multidisciplinary database providing full-text access to scholarly and popular journals in broad areas of academic study, as well as indexing and abstracts of additional titles unavailable in full text. Coverage: 1990-present.
- Bibliography of Native North Americans This link opens in a new window Citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents covering native North American culture, history, and life, with coverage spanning from the 16th century to the present. Topics include archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window Indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Provides abstracts of journal articles and citations of book reviews as well as abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Coverage dates from 1952 to the present.
- Humanities International Index This link opens in a new window A bibliographic index of over 1,700 U.S. and international journals in the humanities, covering articles, essays, reviews, and creative work in poetry, fiction, and visual arts.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full-text access to thousands of scholarly journals covering the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, plus monographs and other academic materials.
- Newspaper Collections This guide identifies and provides links to newspapers and newspaper databases to which Colby subscribes. Coverage is both current and historical. Also included are selected portals of newspapers freely available on the Web.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Google Scholar indexes many scholarly journals, theses, books, and white papers from academic and society publishers. It also indexes patents and some case law.
Note the type of publication an article is in.
* Scholarly journals are the primary conduit of academic research.
* Magazines can provide popular perspectives or alternative voices.
* Newspapers can offer the most current information or show attitudes and feelings of a certain time.
Scholarly Journals
Look for options in databases to limit your results to articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.
Articles in scholarly journals, especially when PEER-REVIEWED are particularly important to academic research. They:
- provide in-depth analysis or report original research
- use in-text citations and bibliographies
- are written by and for scholars
Writing & Citation Help
- Purdue OWL The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.
The Chicago Manual of Style
This 2017 edition of the guide has updated information on PDF annotation, citation management, and effective use of keywords. The chapter on grammar and usage includes an expanded glossary of problematic words and phrases and a new section on syntax as well as updated guidance on gender-neutral pronouns and bias-free language.
Publication Date: 2017
Other Library Guides
Mesa Verde the Cliff Palace - Colorado / USA, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0), via flickr
Primary Sources: Historical Newspapers & Magazines
- America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922 This link opens in a new window1690 to 1922, including small-town papers from all 50 states.
- Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowBoston Globe (1872-1982), the Los Angeles Times (1881-1990), the New York Times (1851-2009), the Wall Street Journal (1889-1996), and the Washington Post (1877-1997).
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowPeriodicals of the American ethnic and minority press.
- Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowDigitized popular magazines from 1846-2005 including Good Housekeeping, Essence, Town & Country and the Ladies' Home Journal.
- Newspaper CollectionsMore historical newspapers in library newspaper guide
- Life MagazineDigitized issues with ads & images. 1936-1972
- Arizona HighwaysMagazine published by a unit of the Arizona Dept. of Transportation,1921-2013
Primary Sources - Archival Collections
- Library of Congress Digital Collections This link opens in a new window Open access to historical U.S. media -- including written and spoken works, sound recordings, images, prints, maps, and sheet music -- documenting the American experience, drawn from the Library of Congress and other institutions.
- HathiTrust This link opens in a new window A digital library containing assets from over 100 research libraries, with document types including books, images, images, music scores, newspapers, and videos. Use the yellow "Log In" button to find and select Colby College, then follow the login prompts.
- Library of Congress Archival Photos & Prints Covers diverse subjects and time periods.
- Internet Archive Non-profit portal to multimedia.
- Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection "As a collection of general Americana, the Newberry’s Edward E. Ayer Collection is one of the best in the country and one of the strongest collections on American Indians in the world. The Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection features several thousand digitized images and texts selected from the Ayer materials."
- Oregon Historical Society Digital Collections Includes manuscripts, maps, interview, diaries, photos and more related to Oregon history.
- Arizona Memory Project Digitized collections curated by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records division
Find other digitized primary source material: Do a Google search for your topic or person and add these words and phrases:
- digital collection* OR "digital library" OR digitized
- "oral histories" or "oral history"
- museum OR archive*
- manuscripts OR papers
For a more precise search, from the Google results, click on: Settings > Advanced Search
You can then narrow your search by entering .edu or .gov or .org in the Site or Domain box
Search Tips
- Use an asterisk to search all endings of a word: immigr* = immigration, immigrant, immigrants, immigrated
- Use quotes to glue together a phrase: "Oregon trail"
- Put synonyms in parentheses with OR between each term: ("native american" OR indigenous)
- As you find material, scan for alternative search terms in item records and references, and then try new searches.
- Start with a keyword search and look for subject headings links in item records.
SAMPLE SUBJECT HEADINGS IN CBBCAT:
OneSearch
OneSearch searches multiple resources at once. Use for very precise searches:
- Finding a specific article
- Finding book chapters on a writer or an artistic work
- Finding book reviews
For best results, use limiters.
Reference: Background Info, Statistics, Legal
- Credo General Reference This link opens in a new window A search engine covering hundreds of reference works, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, and books of quotations, plus subject-specific titles covering topics such as arts, business, history, law, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, and technology.
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window The full text online version of the Oxford English Dictionary contains both the complete Second Edition and the New Edition in progress.
- Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window An online edition of the reference work from Cambridge University Press, with historical U.S. Census Bureau data on population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, economic sectors, and governance and international relations.
- Thomson Reuters Westlaw This link opens in a new window An online legal research tool providing full-text access to federal and state court cases , laws, statutes, and regulations, legal encyclopedias, law reviews and journals, and European Union legal materials.
- Congress.gov This link opens in a new window The official search engine of U.S. federal legislative information, including current legislation, the Congressional Record, information on members, and committee reports.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window Database of texts from the bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Texts constitute a rich source of primary source material on all aspects of American history. Upon completion, the digital version of the Serial set will consist of over 12 million pages. Database searchable by subject, publication category, standing committee author, and other parameters. Coverage: 15th Congress - 42nd Congress, 2nd Session, 1817 - 1980
- American FactFinder - U.S. Census Census data in map and/or table form. Try Census Tract as geographic type to look at ACS estimates.
Course Librarian
Need to use these resources off campus?
Off-campus users will often be able to gain access to Colby Library resources using their Colby ID and password.. But for the most reliable access, install VPN (Virtual Private Network) on your computer or device. This fools your device into thinking you're on campus! (You may also need to click on the VPN app icon every time you sign in.)