Listed below are the 3 key databases for History.
For a complete list of relevant databases see Databases for History
Below on this page you will find boxes with information that will help you to find articles.
Another option is to try our online tutorial.
The library databases are big of collections of articles. Some are research articles, others more general. Some articles are fulltext on the databases, others are not.
If you do not know which database to use, try Databases MultiSearch on the UC Library homepage.
If you want a more specific database, see Databases for History.
Before you start, spend five minutes thinking about the key words and concepts around your chosen topic, including synonyms and related concepts. This process will help you:
1. Clarify your topic
2. Break it into component parts or themes (and allow you to focus your topic and discard elements)
3. Identify key words to use in your searches.
Rule of thumb: Start with a general search and narrow it down. Add one element of your search in at a time so you can see what effect each change has on the results.
Spelling: Correct spelling is vital. Capitalization doesn’t matter. Remember that U.S. spellings are sometimes different, e.g. behaviour, behavior; Moslem, Muslim
Different Terminology: Other countries may use different terminology. You will need to search on all variations, e.g. medieval, "middle ages"
Truncation: Use an asterisk * in most databases for truncation, e.g. revolution* will search for:
revolution, revolutions, revolutionary, revolutionaries…etc.
Build your search using AND and OR:
Islam* AND Medieval find all articles that have BOTH words.
Islam OR Muslim finds articles that have EITHER the word Islam OR the word Muslim OR both.
If you are including both the AND operator and the OR in your search statement, put brackets around the part of the statement being ORed:
(Islam* or Muslim*) and Medieval
This ensures that the OR statement is processed first. You will get a vastly different and unintended result if you do not use brackets.
As a rule of thumb: get your results down to about 100. This is a comfortable number to look through. You will strike many useless articles – this is the peril of keyword searching.
• You can build as big a search stream as you like. Using ‘and’ will decrease the results. Using ‘or’ will increase the results.
Keep adding on terms as you refine the search:
1. Crusad*
2. Crusad* and Islam*
3. Crusad* and (Islam* or muslim* or moslem*)
4. Crusad* and (Islam* or muslim* or moslem*) and templar
• Most databases have “Limit” functions on the first search page. These enable you to cut down large results by screening out information by date, language, document type, or level of the information. Have a look and see what is there.
If you initially find only one or two items that look interesting, don't despair!
• Look at the records and at the subject headings / descriptors that are listed. See what terms they have used to describe the content, and add these to your list of keywords to search
• Check other articles written by the same author(s)
• When you find a good article, see if the database has a “find more like this” link to click
• When you find a good article, check the bibliography for other articles that may be relevant. Keep in mind that the articles in the bibliography will be older than the article you have found.