Introduction
There are many web sites that support scholarly research in history. These
web sites include full-text documents, manuscripts, and treatises, journal
articles, literature indexes and abstracts, and even guides to special collections
in libraries and museums.
You can begin a web search "cold" by selecting relevant terms to search the entirety of sites linked by any of the popular search engines http://www.searchthe.net. However, many search engines map out their links to web in web directories that guide researchers from more general topics (e.g., U. S. History) to specific sites (e.g., National Underground Railroad Freedom Center).
For example, the Yahoo! web directory organizes web sites on History http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History:
in addition to a number of general categories, including:
Each of these general categories is further subdivided into narrower categories and an alphabetical list of links to specific web sites. For example, selecting the U.S. History category and further restricting your search by selecting the By Subject category http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/U_S_History/By_Subject will link you to the following subcategories:
Similarly, if you wish to explore the 108 web sites linked to the category Slavery http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/U_S_History/By_Subject, simply click on that link. You will retrieve the following linked categories:
Other web directories have a similar structure. For example, see Google's web directory for historical resources at http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/History.
Please keep in mind the dynamic nature of the web. New web sites are created at a rapid rate, and existing web sites are constantly expanded and updated. It should be no surprise to find that links you have used reliably for some time have been renamed, rerouted or replaced. That is why it is important to get a feel for a search engine's navigational matrix and they way it works to help you identify specific sites.
Selected Historical Resources on
the Web
There are numerous web sites that collocate links to historical resources.
Here are some of the ones most useful for scholarly research:
History Web Sites
http://www.libraries.uc.edu/research/subject_resources/history-websites.html
Prepared by Sally Moffitt of the University of Cincinnati's Langsam Library,
this alphabetical list includes over 100 links to web sites on the history
of the United States, Canada, and European countries.
WWW-VL History Index
http://www.ukans.edu/history/VL
The World Wide Web Virtual Library's History Index is produced by a worldwide
network of contributors. The site is intended as an online resource for practicing
historians. Its scope is worldwide, as are its contributors, and currently
includes resources from almost 200 countries, as well as links to research
guides, archives, indexes, and scholarly associations. The main server is located
at the University of Kansas.
AllLearn
http://www.allianceforlifelonglearning.org/er/directories.cgi
AllLearn is a partnership among Oxford, Stanford and Yale universities. Experts
from these universities identify, review, and catalog the leading academic
websites on many topics, including history.
The History Page
http://www.scholiast.org/history
Webmaster Peter Ravn Rasmussen is a student in history at the University of
Copenhagen. His site includes a comprehensive directory of links organized
by time period and a detailed Table of History.
History Guide
http://www.historyguide.de/hist_main.html
The History Guide is cooperatively maintained by the Gottingen State and University
Library and the Bavarian State Library. It describes itself as an "Internet-based
subject gateway to scholarly relevant information in history with a focus in
Anglo-American history and the history of Central and Eastern Europe." The
site is searchable by region, time period and subject, and includes full-text
journal articles, bibliographies and documents.
The HistoryChannel.Com Network
http://www.network.historychannel.com
On this site, the History Channel offers its collection of "the web's best
history sites" (at least there are a lot of them!) categorized by subject and
listed alphabetically, too. You may search the network sites individually or
collectively by keyword from the site's front page. The front page also enables
you to search the History Channel web site
http://www.historychannel.com.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall
This site is edited by Paul Halsall, Assistant Professor of History at University
of North Florida, and served up from Fordham University. It collects links
to public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use.
American Memory: Historical Collections
from the National Digital Library
http://memory.loc.gov
This web site is produced by the National Digital Library Program of the Library
of Congress. It serves as a gateway to primary materials from the Library's
collections that relate to the history and culture of the United States. Currently,
there are more than 7 million digital items available from this site, including
rare books, photographs, manuscripts, maps, sound recordings and moving pictures.
National Archives and Records
Administration
http://www.archives.gov
The NARA is an independent federal agency whose mission is to preserve our
national history through federal records management. Its mission is to ensure
continuing access to historical materials that document the rights of American
citizens and the actions of our elected officials. The NARA website includes
retrospective records of Congress and the Presidential libraries in addition
to other records that document the national experience.
Don?t Forget about OhioLINK!
University of Cincinnati students have access to numerous indexes and full-text
journals through the OhioLINK network. Some of these OhioLINK databases are
limited to history
http://www.ohiolink.edu/resources/dblist.php?by=subject&search=hist,
e.g., Historical Abstracts, while some include reference to works within
the realm of history as well as other subjects, e.g., ArticleFirst, which
indexes over 12,000 journals. A "loose words search" using the terms "
history" and "historical" from
OhioLINK's Full-text Journals page
http://www.libraries.uc.edu/research/journals/text/index.html will
retrieve over 200 full-text electronic journals on history.
Reference Assistance
Remember, if you have questions or problems conducting historical research
on the web, please ask a Reference Librarian. A Reference Librarian is on
duty at the Law Library the following times:
Reference Desk Hours |
|
| Monday - Thursday | 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. |
| Friday | 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
| Saturday | 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
| Sunday | 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. |
University of Cincinnati College of Law, PO Box 210040, Clifton Avenue & Calhoun Street, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0040,
513-556-6805 (p) / 513-556-2391 (f);
webmaster@law.uc.edu;
Copyright Information; © University of Cincinnati 2007