Off-Campus Access


Movie-Made Women: Constructions of Gender in American Mass Culture
| Background Sources | Secondary Sources: Books | Secondary Sources: Journal Articles |
| Finding Published Primary Sources | Selected Web Resources |

| Film & Television | Advertisements | Music | Texts |

Background Sources

Encyclopedias and dictionaries provide background information and can be used to identify key people, events and dates which can then be used as search terms for finding additional information. More importantly, because encyclopedias often cover the major issues surrounding the subject, they can help you narrow your research from a broad “who, what, where, when” topic to a “how or why” question. In addition many encyclopedia articles help you jump start your research by providing a list of recommended readings.
  • Encyclopedia of American cultural & intellectual history
            Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - D840 .P28 1996
  • Encyclopedia of American social history
            Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - HN57 .E58 1993
  • Encyclopedia of the United States in the twentieth century
            Suzzallo Reference -E740.7 .E33 1996
  • The Greenwood guide to American popular culture
            Suzzallo Reference - E169.1 .G7555 2002
  • Handbook of American women's history
            Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - HQ1410 .H36 1990
  • The reader's companion to U.S. women's history
            Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - HQ1410 .R43 1998
  • St. James encyclopedia of popular culture
            Suzzallo Reference, Undergraduate Reference - E169.1 .S764 2000

Finding Books

 Use the following databases to locate books in the UW Libraries and in other libraries around the region, nation and world. Books unavailable at the UW can be requested through Summit (if available at one of the member libraries) or through Interlibrary Loan.

  • UW Libraries Catalog
    A listing of the books, journal subscriptions and other material available at the University of Washington Libraries.
  • Summit
    Joint catalog of more than 25 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington. Books can requested and shipped to the UW for pick-up.
  • OhioLINK
    Use OhioLink to access chapters of recent books, use the "Words" search option.
  • OCLC WorldCat [UW only]
    Joint catalog of thousands of major libraries in the U.S. and abroad.

Finding Articles

Use indexes (databases) to find articles (from scholarly journals, popular magazines and newspapers and sometimes books, dissertations, government reports, etc.) on a topic. There are indexes covering all sorts of subjects, use those which best fit your research topic. For a complete list of databases see Research Databases on the UW Libraries Homepage.

Once you identify articles you need make sure you have the complete citation (author, title, journal name, volume, pages and year), then look in the UW Libraries Catalog for the journal name (do a title search for the journal name to see if the UW subscribes) to see if and where the journal is kept (library location and call number).

Databases marked UW Only require that you use the Off-Campus Access link on the top right-side corner of this page to logon before you use the databases from home. Articles from journals which the UW does not own can be requested via Interlibrary loan.
  • America History & Life [UW only]
    Major index to articles in U.S. and Canadian history. Also includes citations to selected books, dissertations and reviews.
  • Expanded Academic Index [UW only]
    Interdisciplinary index to magazine and journal articles in all subjects, includes some full-text. For a similar database also see Research Library [UW only]
  • JSTOR [UW only]
    Searchable collection of back issues of selected journals including the American Historical Review and the Film Quarterly. For another collection of searchable electronic journals related to history and the humanities see Project Muse.
  • Contemporary Women's Issues [UW only]
    Feminist magazines, small newspapers, newsletters, selected journals; all fulltext. Also see Viva: A Bibliography of Women's History.

Finding Published Primary Sources

Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources

Secondary sources, scholarly journal articles and books, are a great source for identifying potential primary sources. Find a few articles, books or dissertations related to your topic and then mine the footnotes and bibliography. You will have the best luck finding published primary sources such as books, government reports, newspapers and magazines within the UW Libraries. Use the UW Libraries Catalog to determine if we have the primary source.

Finding Primary Sources -- Books

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of books that can be considered primary sources for history. These include books written during the period for your topic (i.e., during the 1920s), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material.

In the UW Libraries Catalog:
  • Limit your search by publication date.
  • Search for books written by key people.
  • Browse the shelves in the appropriate subject area.
  • Use special subject terms that designate primary sources:
    sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence, interviews
  • Example:
    • feminism and united states and sources
  • North American women's letters and diaries: colonial to 1950 [UW only]
    Searchable collection of over 500 transcribed diaries and collections of letters written by American women from the colonial period to 1950.

    • Finding Primary Sources -- Articles

    The UW Libraries has a strong collection of magazines and journals from the first half of the 20th century. Many of them are in print (either in Suzzallo Periodicals or in a storage area), others are on microfilm and are housed in the Microform & Newspaper Collections on the ground floor of Suzzallo.

    • American Periodical Series Online [UW only]
      Though primarily a collection of fulltext 18 and 19th century American magazines also includes some early 20th century material such as The Living Age, McClure's and Forum.
    • Historic New York Times [UW only]
      Fulltext version of the New York Times from 1851 to 2001.
    • Reader's Guide Retrospective [UW only]
      General index to American magazines for the period of 1890 to 1980. Also available in print in Suzzallo Reference AI3 .R48.

    Selected Web Sites

    For a more complete listing of history-related websites see History on the Web. For tips on evaluating primary sources on the web see Using Primary Sources on the Web.

    History Subject Page | Cinema Studies Page | Chicago Styleguide | UW Libraries Homepage

    1 January 2005
    Theresa Mudrock - Glenda Pearson