NOTE: Electronic resources are licensed for the noncommercial, educational, or research use of the MSU community and those who are physically present at our library facilities. Systematic downloads, distribution or long-term storage of substantial portions of information is prohibited.

    Find Articles

19th Century Masterfile   "19th Century Masterfile is a vast 'Index of Indexes,' and is the largest resource for historical research prior to 1925. 19th Century Masterfile brings together over 60 subject indexes to: Periodicals, Newspapers, Books, US Congressional Record, US and UK Government Documents, and US Patents. You can query all of the 6 million citations in 19th Century Masterfile in a single search."

America: History and Life     1954 - present Provides citations & abstracts to journal articles about North American history.

Arts and Humanities Search     1980 - present Provides citations to articles, bibliographies, letters, reviews, and other materials about arts and humanities. Also serves as a citation index for the arts and humanities.

BHI: British Humanities Index     1962 - present Provides citations and abstracts to articles in "internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK."

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era       1857 - 1865 Provides full image articles from Harper's Weekly during Civil War years. See also websites documenting historical controversies compiled from 50 years of Harper's Weekly editorials, articles, news briefs, cartoons, illustrations, poetry, and advertisements.

Historical Abstracts     1450 - present Provides citations & abstracts to journal articles about world history, excluding North America.

Humanities/Social Sciences Retrospective     1907-1984 Provides citations to historical articles about all aspects of the humanities and social sciences.

International Medieval Bibliography Has over 300,000 records, "deriving from articles published in journals, and in miscellany volumes (conference proceedings, collected essays, Festschriften and exhibition catalogues). All subjects relating to the Middle Ages are included, within the date range 400-1500". Covers Europe, North Africa, Armenia, and the Muslim World."

JSTOR   Provides citations, abstracts, and full text to articles from the back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The issues include full page images for all articles. Working with publishers, JSTOR creates a "moving wall" of coverage for each journal. "The moving wall is a fixed period of time ranging, in most cases, from 2 to 5 years, that defines the gap between the most recently published issue and the date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR." Therefore, the most current article available through JSTOR is usually 2-5 years old.

Project MUSE       1993 - present Provides citations, abstracts, and full text to articles from journals that cover the "fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others" (see full list of journals available).

Reader's Guide Retrospective     1890-1982 Provides citations to historic articles indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.

Readers' Guide Full Text   Offers current events coverage, curriculum support, and quality periodicals research for students, educators, and library patrons.

Social Sciences Full Text   Features a wide assortment of the most important English-language journals published in the U.S. and elsewhere with full text and page images from scores of key publications, plus abstracting and indexing of hundreds of others. This database covers the latest concepts, trends, opinions, theories, and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences.

Wilson Mega Omnifile       1982 - present Includes articles from over 1750 publications. Coverage is multidisciplinary. Provides complete content from Education Full Text, General Science Full Text, Humanities Full Text, Reader's Guide Full Text, Social Sciences Full Text, and Wilson Business Full Text databases. Includes full text articles (no additional citations or abstracts) from Applied Science & Technology Full Text, Art Full Text, Biological & Agricultural Full Text, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, and Library Literature & Information Science Full Text databases.

    Find Books

MSU Library Catalog   Provides citations to books, including NetLibrary ebooks, videos/DVDs, posters, government documents, maps, newspapers, some journals (NOT articles), theses and alternate plan papers, and other materials owned by MSU.

WorldCat     1000 B.C. - present Provides citations to books and other materials (including those that are out of print) held by libraries worldwide.

    Find Newspapers

Access World News (NewsBank)   Provides full text news articles from over 600 U.S. and over 500 International sources. Includes access to articles from: Chicago Tribune Christian Science Monitor Duluth News Tribune New York Times St. Cloud Times St. Paul Pioneer Press Star Tribune Washington Post selected broadcast transcripts

Early American Newspapers       1690 - 1922 Provides images and full-text content from colonial and early national period newspapers.

Historical New York Times       1851 - 2002 Provides searchable full-image articles published in the New York Times.

LexisNexis Academic   Provides full text newspaper articles from many states and countries as well as news transcripts, which are mostly from major American news sources. Also provides citations and selected full text to legal materials, including federal code and regulations, state codes, tax law, and state and federal case law.

Minneapolis Morning Tribune Historical   Full text access to the Minneapolis Morning Tribune from 1909-1922. Indexing and abstracts available from 1867-1908.

Newspapers (Early American)   Provides images and full-text content from colonial and early national period newspapers.

ProQuest Newspapers   Provides citations and selected full text to newspaper articles. Includes full text for over 300 U.S. and International newspapers, including Star Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Updated daily.

    Find Other Resources

American History in Video   American History in Video provides the largest collection of video available online for the study of American history. The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. This release now provides 1526 titles, with new videos from California Newsreel and PBS. Trial ends November 2, 2009. Comments on this trial? Complete our Feedback Form!

American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank    Includes "5000+ full text, audio and video (streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two."

Biography Reference Bank   Provides full text articles and reference book entries about more than 500,000 people from ancient times to the present. Also includes images, color photos, and citations to articles and books.

Contemporary Authors   Current biographical and bibliographical data on more than 120,000 modern authors.

CQ Historic Documents       1972 - present "CQ Historic Documents collects more than 2,500 primary sources covering current events around the world and provides a clear, logical organization and tools for exploring these rich resources." Search all available CQ Collections via CQ Electronic Library.

CQ Weekly       1983 - present CQ Weekly covers every act of Congress with nonpartisan news and analyses every week. Search all available CQ Collections via CQ Electronic Library.

eHRAF Collection of Ethnography   Provides full text ethnographic information on all aspects of cultural and social life (e.g., religious beliefs, raising children, causes and cures of diseases, economics, politics) for numerous cultures. Note: a print collection, which includes unique information, is available on the first floor.

Eurodocs    Includes primary historical documents, transcriptions, facsimiles, and translations from Western Europe. Browse documents by country. Can also brose documents by selecting "Medieval and Renaissance Europe" or "Europe as a Supranational Region."

History Channel Speech Archive   Browse over 500 audio speeches by subject area or alphabetically by author. Includes speeches by film directors, political candidates, presidents, sports figures, and explorers.

OurDocuments    Comprised of "100 Milestone Documents," this collection chronicles American history from 1776 - 1965. Includes scanned copies of the actual documents, document transcrips, and downloadable PDF copies.

Public Documents Masterfile     1789 - present A comprehensive electronic guide to federal, state, local and international public documents, spanning over 200 years of publication, in a single searchable database.

RefWorks RefWorks is a unique tool that allows you to create a database of citations to help manage multiple research projects.

Sanborn Maps of Minnesota     1867 - 1970 "Sanborn maps are large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn at a scale of 50 feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property. The maps list street blocks and building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers."

Time & Life Pictures   Provides a "rich pictorial history of both the obscure and iconic moments of the 20th century...The online collection comprises over 425,000 digital files, representing millions of original prints and negatives archived by the Time Inc. Picture Collection."

    Find Statistics, Facts, Definitions

CQ Congress Collection   An encyclopedic and research-oriented Congressional reference tool that provides legislative policy histories, statistics, biographies, and electoral data. Search all available CQ Collections via CQ Electronic Library.

Dictionary of Wisconsin History    Part of "Turning Points in Wisconsin History," a digital project of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Includes place names, tribal names, personal names, and other terms in Wisconsin's history.

Oxford English Dictionary   Provides full text dictionary definitions from all 20 volumes of the print edition plus the 3-volume Additions Series.

Oxford Reference Online: History   Search one or all of the following reference books: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology A Dictionary of British History A Dictionary of Contemporary World History Dynasties of the World The Kings and Queens of Britain The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History A Dictionary of Political Biography The Oxford Dictionary of Popes The Oxford Dictionary of Saints Who's Who in the Twentieth Century The Oxford Guide to the United States Government The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military A Dictionary of World History

    Use Web Resources

American Journeys    "Contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness accounts of North American exploration, from the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies 800 years later. Read the words of explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders and settlers as they lived through the founding moments of American history. View, search, print, or download more than 150 rare books, original manuscripts, and classic travel narratives from the library and archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society."

American Memory    Provides "a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections."

Making of America    Comprises "digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints."

Proceedings of the Western Society for French History    Founded in 1974, the Western Society for French History seeks to promote the study of French and Francophone history. This website offers peer-reviewed papers from the Society's annual meeting.