Social Studies Resources

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies

The library has online databases, reference books and circulating books, which are useful for social studies classes.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

For historical information, use History Resource Center World and History Resource Center United States (Gale). Articles discussing history are also available in Expanded Academic (Gale), Proquest Gold and Proquest Historical Newspapers. For information on up-to-date social issues and problems, try Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center (Gale), and any of the current newspaper and magazine indexes. 

Reference Books

Many Encyclopedias are available which cover subjects studied in the various social studies’ classes. A few of these are:

• Psychologists and their Theories. R150.95 95
• Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. R342.73 En1
• Encyclopedia of American Social History. R301.0973 En1
• Europe 1450-1789. R 940.2 E56
• Europe 1789-1914. R 940.28 E56
• Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. R 950.03 L57e
• Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. R 956.003 En1
• Dictionary of American History. R973.03 D56

Circulating Books

Many circulating books are also available. Use the automated catalog to look up subjects you are interested in. Ask the librarians if you need help finding these books.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies: Africa

Reference Books

• Africans South of the Sahara: the Culture, Geographical Setting and Historical
• Background of 34 African Peoples. R960 M85a
• Cultural Atlas of Africa. R 912.60 C89
• Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. R 967 En1
• Historical Atlas of Africa. R 911.60 H62 (in atlas case)
• Statesman’s Yearbook. R320 St2

Circulating Books

Most books on Africa are in the 960’s. Check the catalog to see everything we have. Because many students are doing this report, checkout times may be limited.
Some especially useful titles are:

• History of Africa. 960 Sh6h
• The Scramble for Africa. 960.312 P17s

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies: The American Civil War

Books

The best way to find books on any subject is to use the book catalog. Use the computer on the far end of the desk. Search by key word, entering the words “Civil War”. Note the call numbers assigned to the books. Books are in numerical order, so this lets you find a book on the shelves. Another purpose of the call numbers is to keep books on the same subject together on the shelves. Most books on the Civil War have a similar number because they are on the same subject. Going to the shelves and browsing through the area containing the Civil War books will allow you to see most of what is currently in on this subject. A few books are reference items that do not check out of the library. They are on the shelves closest to the entrance. Examples of some of the books we have are:

• Captains of the Civil War: a Chronicle of the Blue and the Gray
• Ironclads of the Civil War
• The Many Faces of the Civil War
• Secret Missions of the Civil War
• Storm over the Land: a Profile of the Civil War
• Wilderness: a Tale of the Civil War
• The Bloodiest Day: the Battle of Antietam
• Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg
• The Killing Ground: Wilderness to Cold Harbor
• Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era
• A Pictorial History of the Civil War Years
• Gettysburg: the Confederate High Tide.
• The Military History of Civil War Land Battles

Reference Books

• American Heritage Battle Maps of the Civil War
• The Civil War Almanac
• The Civil War Dictionary
• Who Was Who in the Civil War

Magazines, Newspapers and Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords. All passwords have been emailed to your SFHS email account.

Historical magazines are indexed in Gale’s Expanded Academic Index. This database can be found on the library’s database page by clicking on Galenet. Expanded Academic ASAP is the second database listed. Enter the words “United States Civil War.”

A variety of articles appear in magazines such as Smithsonian and Civil War History. These are full text and can be printed right from the screen.

For newspaper articles, try ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Click on ProQuest from the library’s database page. If coming in from home, the username is 46-65725 and the password is bigchalk. Again search for the subject United States Civil War. The newspapers in this database go back to 1851, so you can read actual articles reporting on the Civil War when it happened.

The best database for this subject that the library subscribes to is History Resource Center U.S., one of the Galenet databases. Enter the subject “Civil War” or “Civil War battles” to see what is available. All information is full-text and can be printed right from the screen. Reference books, magazines, documents and original sources are available. To access Galenet, go to the library’s database page and click on Galenet.

Internet

There are many, many sites on the open Internet about the Civil War. If using the Internet, remember that anyone can put up a site.  Check the source of any site you use. Does the author give his or her qualifications? Is it clear who sponsors the site? Try to ascertain any sites you use are from reputable sources! You will find student work, professors’ interests, amateurs’ work, professional sites and the American Memory site of the Library of Congress. The latter has actual copies of historical items you can access on the open Internet. Go to www.loc.gov for all Library of Congress information.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies: Maps

Using the Internet 

Although many maps are available on the web, these are frequently street or political maps.  Listed below are some of the better sites for finding a variety of maps, including those for population and geographic features.

Bureau of the Census – good for population statistics for the United Sates and the various states.

• Select Census 2000. 
• Click on American Fact Finder. 
• Then select the state you want and Population Density. Finally, click on the GO button.

CIA World Fact Book 2001 – good for political maps, some population and geographic maps.

• Select country you are interested in to see which maps are available.

Perry Castaneda Map Collection – The best place for contour/geographic maps of various countries. 

• To put a map in printable format, right click on map, save to hard drive, (documents file is fine.)  
• Then, open Microsoft Word, insert picture and find the file of the map. 
• Stretch map if possible to fill page, and print. 
• Large maps may have type almost too small to read!

All the World’s Maps – Various maps. You will need to search the site.

Topo Zone – Topographical maps of the United States. Detailed topographical maps, many from the United States Geological Service.

Maps in the News – Mostly political maps. See site to see what is available.

National Geographic Society – Various geographical and contour maps available.

A good place to look for more map sites is The Librarians’ Index to the Internet. Click on geography, then on Maps.  (Also a great site to find good websites for many other subjects!)

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies: Supreme Court Cases

There are several different places in the Saint Francis Library to look for information on Supreme Court Cases. Many of these cases are well known and extensively written about. In the circulating book collection, there are books about the Supreme Court, books about famous Supreme Court cases and some entire books just about individual cases, (Landmark Supreme Court Cases.) Most of the books will be found in 342-347.9. The Reference section also contains books about the Constitution and the Supreme Court. These will be found on the low shelves at R 342.73 – R 349.73.

Using the Internet: 

The Internet can be a very good source for information, though some of these cases may be difficult to find.

Databases: 

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

The library also subscribes to several databases that are available via the web and are subject searchable. The best one for this assignment is Lexis-Nexis Scholastic Universe. To access this database, go to the library’s database page, and click on Lexis-Nexis.

• Click on Legal Research
• Click on U.S. Supreme Court Cases by party name or citation
• Enter both parties’ names. Spell out United States – for example, United States and Peters. You do not need the citation also.
• If you retrieve many citations, go to the FOCUS box at the bottom of page 1 and add another word or the date of the case.

Books in the Library: 

• Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. R 342.73 En1
  Use the index to look up cases that have affected the Constitution.
• Historic U.S. Court Cases, 1690-1990: an Encyclopedia. R 347.73 J63h
• Encyclopedia of the American Judicial System. R349.73 Enl
• The Bill of Rights and Landmark Cases. 342 L64b
• Liberty, Justice, and Equality: How These Constitutional Guarantees Have Been Shaped
• by United States Supreme Court Decisions since 1789. 342.7 L47l
• The U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court. 342.73 An9u
• Equal Justice Under Law: the Supreme Court in American Life. 342.73 H23e
• Quarrels That Have Shaped the Constitution. 342.73 Q2
• Gibbons v. Ogden. 343.73 L57g
• Marbury v. Madison. 347.7312 D49m
• The Supreme Court. 347.73 F91s
• The Supreme Court: America’s Judicial Heritage. 347.9 Ac4
• Historic Decisions of the Supreme Court. 347.9 Sw6h  

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!

The Lancer Library Subject Resources: Social Studies: U.S. History and Social Issues

The Saint Francis Library has many resources available for students that cover the topics assigned in U.S. History classes. These include books, magazines, newspapers and documents in hard copy or delivered via the web through our subscription databases or from government sponsored websites.

Books in the Library

All the library’s books are listed in the catalog. Look up your topic as a subject or a key word. For example: type in “immigration”, “Chinese Americans”, “gilded age”, “women suffrage” or any other words. You may also use broad terms such as “United States history nineteenth century”, or “United States history twentieth century”. Most of these books will be found in the 973’s and in the 300’s. Please ask the library staff if you need help finding books! Don’t forget to check the reference books! We have useful sets such as Dictionary of American History and Annals of America, which have original speeches and documents of the time.

Databases

Special Note - To access the databases from home, see the librarians for the list of usernames and passwords.

The best database for these topics is History Resource Center: U.S. This can be found under the Galenet databases. Go to the library’s database page and click on Galenet, then look for History Resource Center: U.S. When this database opens up, notice that you can simply type any subject or keyword in the subject box. A list of articles from books will then come up. Click on any of these to bring up the entire article. These may be printed. Notice that the tabs above the articles allow you to also bring up periodical articles, primary documents, and maps and multimedia. On the left side of the page will be a list of related topics you may want to look at. All items found in this database have been carefully chosen for these topics. Most were originally print items. Citations are given for every article to use in your list of works used. This is an extensive database and one of the best resources for American history information. It is available twenty-four hours a day via the website.

If you are researching social topics such as Social Darwinism, use Galenet databases – Gale Virtual Reference Library. Type in your topic and see what comes up. Not every topic will come up, but it is still a good place to check.

Another useful database can be found under ProQuest. It can also be found in the middle of the library’s database webpage. The historical newspapers go back as far as 1851 and are fully indexed. Type in your subject and read what the people at that time were saying and reading about it.

Using the Internet 

Although open web sites are not always useful for historical topics, you might want to try the American Memory site at rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html. This is part of the Library of Congress site and includes copies of primary documents, maps and pictures from all eras of American history.

Remember, you can also find books at your local public libraries after all our books are checked out! Lastly, if you are having trouble finding information, what should you do? Ask us for help! Ask any of the librarians for help finding information or for citing your sources so you can avoid the dreaded PLAGIARISM!