Research Guides: Environmental History: A Library Research Tutorial: Find Academic Sources

Search for Articles

Now that you have some background information and a list of terms, names, places, or events, use the search terms that you know are associated with the area of study ("landscape history," etc.) to search FSU Libraries' catalog and databases (links below) for books and journal articles that deal with that area of study.

Download or check out a number of resources--I usually shoot for a minimum of 10--that address the area of study from a number of different angles. The goal here is to try and get a representative sample of the studies related to your topic.

Pro Tip: One source does not have to address every aspect of your research topic to be relevant and helpful.

History-specific Databases

Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexes journal articles covering countries other than the United States and Canada in the subject areas of history, the social sciences and humanities. The scope of coverage is World History (1450–present) and related areas including culture, diplomacy, economics, international relations and politics.
Abbreviation: hist-abs
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1964-Current
Subjects: Asian Studies, History, Middle Eastern Studies, Russian & Eastern European Studies, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database covering the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. America: History and Life is an index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from as far back as 1910.
Abbreviation: americahistlife
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1910-Current
Subjects: African-American Studies, History, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Indexes / Catalogs

The following tutorial shows how to navigate journal databases and shares strategies for conducting effective and efficient searches. The example in this video is Academic Search Complete, a database we license from the company EBSCO. The History-specific databases Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life are also EBSCO products, so all of the search features will be the same.

Search for eBooks or Print Books

The following tutorial shows how to find eBooks using FSU Libraries' main search tool: OneSearch. You can also find eBooks and print books using the Catalog search, linked below.