LibGuides: High School Guide: Comp Civ 12

Searc help

If you are unfamiliar with searching for books in the McPherson Library, watch some of our 2 minute help videos.

Watch this introduction to Library Search

Try these too: Find Books or this Find Peer-Reviewed Articles

Here is a link to our complete list of UVic Libraries Help Videos

Research tip: use several keywords to start your search. Scan your results and locate one or two titles on your topic. View the library records for these titles and click on a subject heading in the record to locate other books in the library on the same topic.

Secondary Sources - Encyclopedias in Print

Scholarly, subject-specific encyclopedias are a great place to get background information, chronologies, bibliographies, and lots of other really useful information to help you start research on a topic.

The following titles are available in print in the McPherson Library Reference collection:

Gale encyclopedia of World history: war
Call Number: Reference D25 A2G35 2008
ISBN: 9781414431482
Greenwood encyclopedia of world popular culture
Call Number: Reference HM621 G735 2007
ISBN: 9780313332555
Civilizations of the ancient Near East
Call Number: Reference DS57 C57
ISBN: 0684192799
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaelogy
Call Number: Reference CC165 C3
ISBN: 0521229898
Brill's encyclopedia of China
Call Number: Reference DS755 B86
ISBN: 9789004168633
Routledge handbook of the peoples and places of ancient western Asia : from the early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire
Call Number: Reference DS57 B89
ISBN: 9780415394857
Religion past & present : encyclopedia of theology and religion
Call Number: Reference BL31 R413 2007
ISBN: 900413980X
Encyclopedia of the ancient world
Call Number: Reference CB311 E54
ISBN: 0893560383
Japan encyclopedia
Call Number: Reference DS821 L6713 2002
ISBN: 0674007700

Secondary Sources - Find articles with America: History and Life & Historical Abstracts

Access the following databases using a guest computer at the McPherson Library. You should mark useful documents and email them to yourself via the email/save option in the database. OR, save the articles to a USB drive.

America History and Life and Historical Abstracts are databases which index scholarly articles from the field of History. We have joined them together so that you can search both North American and worldwide history at the same time. It covers worldwide topics from prehistory to present day, and has some very cool features which help you to find articles in History.

Era Limit. You can enter the dates you're interested in, (for example, 1867 - 1900), to get back a list of articles about that date range.
Language Limit. You can select English, or English and French, to limit your results to things you can actually read.
Publication Type. You can limit to 'articles' and avoid seeing Theses, or other items that would be difficult to get your hands on.
'GetThis' links. Click on the 'getthis' link next to the article citation to find that article in the library (electronic or print).

Secondary Sources: Where is my Article?

The database will tell you everything you need to know about an article.

Sometimes, the entire article is included in the database. Use PDF links or HTML links.

Sometimes you have to follow links from the database to the online article, often via our library catalogue. Use "Get This" links!

Sometimes, the article is only available in print, and you have to use the Library Catalogue to find out where the journal that holds the article is in the library. "Get This" will tell you that the journal is only available in print, and for which years. Use the "Show Me Where" button to determine which floor, and where on that floor, to visit to find the journal.

Secondary Sources - Encyclopedias Online

Access the following encyclopedias using a guest computer at the McPherson Library. You should mark useful documents and email them to yourself via the email/save option in the database. OR, save the articles to a USB drive.

Oxford companion to classical civilization
ISBN: 0198601654
Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt
ISBN: 0195102347
Oxford encyclopedia of Mesoamerican cultures : the civilizations of Mexico and Central America
ISBN: 0195108159
Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Greece and Rome
ISBN: 9780195170726
International encyclopedia of marriage and family
ISBN: 9780028658834

Databases

Dictionary of Irish Biography Published in collaboration with the Royal Irish Academy, the Dictionary of Irish Biography is the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical reference work available both in print and online for Ireland. From James Ussher to James Joyce, St Patrick to Patrick Pearse, St Brigit to Maud Gonne ...

American National Biography Online Portraits of more than 18,700 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the United States of America.
Biography Index Past and Present Detailed biographical information,for a range of subjects from antiquity to the present and representing all fields and nationalities, providing contextual information on writers, artists, statesmen, sports figures, politicians, religious leaders, actors, business people and other important individuals.
Canadian Who's Who Documenting the achievement of Canadians from a wide variety of occupations and professions, Canadian Who's Who records the diversity of culture in Canada. These biographies are organized alphabetically and provide detailed information on the accomplishments of notable Canadians, from coast to coast.
Current Biography Illustrated Content of the monthly magazine Current Biography. Readers will be able to find accurate, up-to-date biographies drawing information from newspaper articles, magazine articles, and books.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online The Dictionary of Canadian Biography, whose first volume appeared in 1966, is a joint project of the University of Toronto and the Université Laval and presents the work of researchers and writers in many fields from across Canada and around the world.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online Profiles of past and present authors, historians, journalists, screenwriters, publishers, and playwrights. The biographies discuss the lives and careers of the literary figures profiled, along with the critical response to their works.
Indian Biography Database (INDBIO) INDBIO provides a dictionary of the men and women who have been India's legislators since 1977. Database contains details of the members of India's lower-house (the Lok Sabha) of Parliament elected between 1977 and 1991. The database includes biographical information provided by the members of parliament, and includes death dates, references to obituary notices, and notes about recent events in legislators' careers.
Nexis Uni Full-text documents from over 15,000 credible sources of information for a wide range of academic research projects. Includes extensive legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790 and business information on over 80 million U.S. and international companies and more than 63 million executives.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Please note: This database is licenced for 3 simultaneous user only. Please log off at the end of your session. An illustrated collection of 59,558 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2011. Excludes living people.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Please note: This database is licenced for 3 simultaneous user only. Please log off at the end of your session. An illustrated collection of 59,558 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2011. Excludes living people.

Lexis Nexis Biographical Information Search

Who's Who and Who Was Who Online Access to up-to-date autobiographies of over 33,000 influential people in British Life today, and 90,000 entries from all of Who Was Who. Detailed information gives users fascinating insight into the private lives of public figures, and direct reciprocal links with Dictionary of National Biography allows users to compare how persons classified their own lives versus how history views them.

Primary Sources - how to find and evaluate them

Use the History How To: Primary Sources guide for information on how to examine and evaluate primary sources, as well as information on how to find them.

History How To: Primary Sources
by Tina Bebbington Last Updated Feb 13, 2024 223 views this year

Primary Sources: In UVic Libraries' databases

History of the World in Photographs
Loaded on CD-Rom Station in the Music and Media Library.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Globe and Mail Includes the full pages of The Globe and Mail from 1844 to 2012.
19th Century British Newspapers Collection of national and regional newspapers of Victorian Britain. This full-text, fully searchable digital archive includes 50 papers originating in England, Scotland and Ireland, carefully selected by an editorial board from the British Library and providing a broad yet detailed view of British life in the 19th century. The collection is made up of daily and weekly publications and reflects Britain's growing role as a superpower in the 19th century world.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers Primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the United States. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life, among other subjects.

Primary Sources: On the Web

These websites are available to anyone. You will need to use these websites on your own personal computer at home or at your school.

CBC Digital Archives
Topics and news clips are chosen by CBC staff to represent a range of themes of historical importance to Canadians. New content is added frequently.
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Freely available to the public via the Internet
History Education Network - Repertory of online collections
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is one of series of history primary sourcebooks. It is intended to serve the needs of teachers and students in college survey courses in modern European history and American history, as well as in modern Western Civilization and World Cultures. Although this part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project began as a way to access texts that were already available on the Internet, it now contains hundreds of texts made available locally.
"Explore World Cultures" at The British Museum View world famous objects and collections from the British Museum, now part of the Google Cultural Institute.