Individuals / Women in History, Spring 2024 (Modern World History, Dr. Angermeier, Dr. McCormack, Mrs. Silver): Home

Use authoritative sources (library databases and books from the library). Please DO NOT start with a Google search
 

1. Begin by looking at the information on specific women in history tab to see what databases and sources are available about your chosen person.

2. You can also search the following recommended library databases. All of our library databases are arranged alphabetically on the left hand side of library webpage.  

• Gale EBooks (articles from biographical encyclopedias or history/religion encyclopedias).
• ABC-CLIO history databases (multiple history databases published by ABC-CLIO; you can search all at once)
• Britannica Academic (encyclopedia)
• EBSCO's eBook Academic Collection (ebooks)
• JSTOR (scholarly journals)
   

3. You can search multiple library databases at once using the One Search Discovery search (the yellow box on main library website) to find articles about your individual in history in other library databases

 

4. Search the Online Catalog to see if there are books in our library about your individual in history. 

• Biographies are shelved upstairs. Call numbers start with BIO 920 or BIO 921
   

If you haven't found enough sources: 

1. Make sure you're searching for your person correctly. Look at the center column of this research guide to see other search suggestions
    
2. If you think you're doing everything correctly but still can't find authoritative sources, please speak with either Ms. Jewell or Ms. Burke, or talk with your teacher

Look on the tab called Information on Specific Women in History to find articles on your assigned women in history.

Each woman is listed in alphabetical order on that tab. Find your woman and start by searching in the suggested library databases. Additionally, there may be links to articles from other databases, or links to websites for women where there might not be a lot of information in our library databases.

Searching for people can sometimes be tricky. Here are some tips: 

1. Start by searching only their name (no titles, such as Empress, Queen, Countess)
    
2. Double check that you're spelling their name properly
    
3. See if there is another way to spell their name or a different way of referring to them
   Hint: read an article to see if it gives a different spelling. You can also look at your search results to see if the article titles spell the name differently
    
4. Put quotation marks around your person's name to see if you get different results
   Example: "Joan of Arc"
    
5. If you're getting a lot of information about other items other than your person, you might want to add the word biography to your search
   Example: "Margaret Thatcher" and biography

Some of the sources listed on the Information on Specific Women in History tab already includes some primary sources written by your chosen woman.  If you need to find additional primary sources, and you've already looked in our databases and online book catalog, you may need to go to the internet. 

When searching Google, adding primary sources to your search terms may help focus your results to be primary sources. Primary sources are often on educational or governmental websites, so make sure you're using a reliable website for your primary source.

Remember that you need to cite your sources.   Many of the articles you find in our library databases were originally in print.  For example, articles from the Gale Ebooks database are encyclopedia articles originally in print, accessed online.

As a reminder: works cited lists should be in alphabetical order by the first item in the citation, double spaced, and if a citation goes onto more than one line, the other lines (2nd, 3rd, 4th line) should be indented.

Below are some links to help with citations.