LibGuides: 11th US History Research: Home

Research Guidelines

1) Once you have selected a topic of interest, do some background reading to build understanding and brainstorm keywords that relate to that topic.

2) Use the databases and websites below to search for more information about your topic. Use the Advanced Search option to combine search terms and narrow your results.

3) Start a project in NoodleTools and share it with your teacher's project inbox. Cite your sources, take notes, and annotate your sources using NoodleTools. Make sure that each notecard has a title and is connected to the correct source.

For this project, you will need to use a range of source types. Please see the chart below to better understand the differences between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.

Chicago Manual of Style: Citation Quick Guide
Chicago Manual of Style Notes-Bibliography Sample Paper
This resource contains the Notes and Bibliography (NB) sample paper for the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition.
Cite while you write
Via Williams College
Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing in CMOS
Via Williams College
Tips on paraphrasing with an example and footnote in CMOS
Via Williams College
Tips on Summarizing with examples in CMOS
Via Williams College
Tips on when and how to quote in CMOS
Via Williams College

Databases (most of these contain all three types of sources)

African American History
Covering more than 500 years of the African-American experience, African-American History offers a fresh way to explore the full spectrum of African-American history and culture. Users can start their investigation of a topic with a video or slideshow overview, use the key content called out on the home page to find an entryway into the database, or dig deep into a subject or era through the Topic Centers.

Username: ropark
Password: facts
American History
Primary documents and reference articles on American history from the era of early exploration (1350) to the present.

Username: rolandstudent
Password: student
American Indian History
American Indian History offers fast access to more than 15,000 years of culture and history, covering more than 600 Native American groups, through tablet/mobile-friendly videos and slideshows, images, biographies of key people, event and topic entries, primary sources, maps and graphs, and timelines.

Username: ropark
Password: facts
Explora Secondary Schools
Designed specifically for middle and high school students, this database provides access to popular full-text magazines, books, images, and journals for middle and high school research.

Username: roland
Password: ParkCS2023!
JSTOR
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

Username: rpcountry
Password: wisdom23
ProQuest Central Student
ProQuest Central K-12 is a multidisciplinary resource that brings together many of ProQuest’s most important, complete databases in science, technology, education, social sciences, humanities, and news. This database solves the problem of preparing students for college level academics by giving them access to a variety of sources, types of content, and multiple subjects using an interface that is widely used in higher education and prep schools.

Username: rpcs2016
Password: rpcs2016#
U.S. History in Context
Gale In Context: U.S. History is an engaging experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history. This comprehensive, contextual, media-rich collection empowers learners to develop information literacy and critical thinking skills
Username: balt23720
Password: balt23720

Some Great Websites for Primary Sources

Alexander Hamilton Primary Source Set
Via the Library of Congress
Digital Collections from the Library of Congress
Search by topic or format
Docs Teach
Via the National Archives, primary sources organized by era
Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
Via the Avalon Project at Yale University
Gilder Lehrman Collection of Documents
Via the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Primary Source Sets
Via the Digital Public Library of America, sets organized by time period and topic
Primary Source Sets
Via the Library of Congress
Primary Sources for United States History
Via the Reference and User Services Assoc. Provides primary source sets by era (colonial, revolution to antebellum, civil war, etc.)
Primary Sources on Slavery, Abolition & Emancipation, Reconstruction, Segregation & Black Migration, and Civil Rights
Via the National Archives
Thomas Jefferson: Establishing A Federal Republic
Via the Library of Congress

Gale E-Books In Context

Gale E-Books in Context
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a great source for reference e-books aimed at the needs of students, researchers, and general readers.

Username: balt23720
Password: balt23720

Google Academic Search Tools

Google Scholar
Search for additional scholarly articles
Google Books
Search for additional eBooks through Google Books. There's often enough of the book available to use it for research.

Search for Books

Library Catalog

News Sources and News Databases

Ethnic News Watch
Ethnic NewsWatch is a current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The database now also contains Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, which provides historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989.

Username: rolandpark
Password: rolandpark

New York Times
Access to the New York Times is through an "Academic Pass" system. Please check for an email from Ms. Fox for instructions on how to turn on your academic pass.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Includes full-text articles from the following newspapers: The Christian Science Monitor (1908 - 2004), The New York Times (1851 - 2014), The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), and The Washington Post (1877 - 2001).

Username: rpcs2016
Password: rpcs2016#
US Newsstream
US Newsstream enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format. For academic and public libraries, US Newsstream offers exclusive access to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and co-exclusive access (with Factiva) to The Wall Street Journal. US Newsstream also offers one of the largest collections of local and regional newspapers, and is cross-searchable on the ProQuest platform.

Username: rpcs2016
Password: rpcs2016#