[Please note that these are examples of sites useful for reference work in history. This list is incomplete and may not include important resources.]
Eigen's Political & Historical Quotations.
Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide For College Students is a comprehensive and most useful guide.
Using Primary Sources on the Web [ALA] is aimed at students, but will be helpful for some beginning reference librarians.
News in Historical Contextrelates contemporary events to recent and older historical events.
History Detectives is a popular PBS series devoted to solving historical mysteries with some emphasis on techniques.
Yale University, in its excellent subject guide series, has a subject guide for American History and American Studies.
About.comhas guides to a variety of history topics. This one is devoted to ancient history.
Best History Web Site isis an excellent place to begin. Includes links to some lesson plans and teacher guides. Well organized and easily understood ratings.
Digital history is a collaborative project between the University of Houston, the Chicago Historical Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the [Houston] Museum of Fine Arts, American Voices, and the National Park Service. Especially useful for K12 education.
ehistoryat Ohio State University contains an usually large amount of content including text, time line events, biographies, images and maps.
History Channel: Audio and Video [RealPlayer] contains a variety of audio-visual content, including a good speech archive.
History Guide is a solid comprehensive site with very good annotations.
Historical Voices is a "searchable online database of spoken word collections spanning the 20th Century.
NYU's Internet Resources for History
Public History Resource Centerprovides a good introduction to public history and the Center. Good list of related websites.
World Wide Virtual Library: History
Using Primary Sources on the Web [University of Washington] provides an excellent introduction.
Internet History SourcebooksProject is a collection of copy-permitted or public domain historical texts.
American Memoryat the Library of Congress
EuroDocs: Western European Historical Documents
Making of America[University of Michigan]
encyclopedia.comis a useful source and wikipediacan sometimes be useful too. For the U.S., the hard copy Historical Statistics of the United States[millennial ed.] by Cambridge University Press in five volumes is essential.
AlternaTimeis a collection of time lines for various topics.
HyperHistory Onlineincludes color coded time lines for events from the past 3000 years.
Timelines.info includes a variety of time lines.
WhoWhatWhen: interactive historical time lines begins with 1000 CE and goes to the present. Search by date or person. Some special lists.
www.OurTimeLines.comcreates individualized time lines with five to 140 year spans beginning with 1000 CE.
Year by Year is a time line from 1900 through 2001 by Infoplease.com. Well organized and interesting.
The Animated Atlascombine maps and animation to create short overviews of topics in the U.S. Especially good for K12 students and teachers.
davidrumsey.comis the website of a map collector that includes more than 10,000 digitized 18th and 19th Century maps. Excellent zoom feature. A model for what can be done with digital maps.
Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century is sometimes opinionated and is nearly always fascinating. Many useful, often thematic, maps illustrate major events or situations.
Historical Maps Online includes hundreds of digitized maps. The zoom feature works well.
Mapping History by the British Library provides examples and discussions of global historical mapping.
The Periodical Historical Atlas of Europe includes a considerable variety of accurate, useful maps.
AmDocsprovides quick, easy access to primary source documents arranged by century. Excerpts for journals, charters, compacts, laws and the like.
Archive of Early American Imagesis a pictorial database of images of the colonial Americas between 1492 and 1825 held at the John Carter Brown Library.
The Avalon Project at Yale University: American History -- A documentary record
Primary Documents in American History provides links to primary content in the LC Collections.
The American Civil War Homepageis an unusually comprehensive collection. This began as an IS 560 project.
American Cultural History: the Twentieth Century is a decade by decade look at eight cultural areas. Good overview.
American Memory: Today in History is attractive and interesting with thoughtful text and interesting images.
American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress resources is an American Memory resource.
Biography of America is attractive and includes good content.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers is a Library of Congress Project.
University of Michigan's Making of America is a digital collection of useful primary source material.
Documenting the American Southdocuments the South from the colonial period through the early 20th Century via about 1500 books and manuscripts. Focus on the lives of ordinary Southerners over time.
Early Americas Digital Archive is a collection of texts written from 1492 to about 1820.
HistoryBuff: an Historical Reference of Press Coverage provides images of contemporary newspapers for events such as Admiral Dewey's victory parade in September 1899.
History Matters from George Mason and the City University of New York [the U.S. survey course on the web] is a rich source for HS and college history teachers of U.S. history.
The History placeprovides essays and links on a good variety of topics.
Making of America includes several million pages from more than 14,000 volumes of primary source material at Cornell and Michigan libraries.
The National Archives and Records Administration.
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Portrait Search provides access to more than 12,00 records of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and photographs of notable Americans.
The United States Civil War Centerdeals with the war from a variety of perspectives.
American Historical Images on File: the Native-American Experience is a collection of historical photographs from Facts on File arranged chronologically.
The Smithsonian Institution has a wonderful collection of items dealing with Native American history and culture as part of their National Museum of the American Indian. The selected exhibitions are especially nice.
American Women's History: a research guide is a comprehensive guide prepared by an SIS alum.
American Women Through Timeprovides chronological coverage [by a SIS alum].
The International Institute of Social History is particularly strong in labor and women's history with links to scholarly work.
America at War has good time lines and details about wars and military campaigns.
Civil War Maps from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia.
National Geographic MapMachine: Civil War Edition includes interactive mapping of 5200 battlefields and historic sites.
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors by the National Park System
History of U.S. Armies in Uniformbegins in 1747 and goes to the present. Illustrations are clear and the text is quite informative.
Military History Online.com covers military history from King Arthur to contemporary times. Special features vary by month. Much appeal for the lay audience.
The Naval Historical Center is the parent and contains much interesting and useful information.
Our Atlases from the U.S. Military Academy begins with ancient warfare and ends with conflicts and wars since 1958.
Sea Your History is devoted to the 20th Century Royal [UK] Navy.
Sources on U.S. Naval History from the Naval Historical Center is attractive and interesting. State listings link to collections and then brief descriptions of primary source material. For the scholar.
Tennessee Heritage Online: Digital Collections from Tennessee Libraries, Archives, and Museums is arranged by collection location.
Tennessee History: A Guide To Primary Sources, arranged by topic with pointers to collections in a variety of locations.
The BBC Historywebsite.
British History Online is a partnership between the History of Parliament Trust and the Institute of Historical Research has strong coverage for 1500 to 1850.
The Database of British History Resources covers UK history from 10,000 B.C. to the present.
Encyclopedia of World Historyis a standard reference work with strong content and good maps.
EuroDocs:Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe includes both regional and country collections.
Historical Research in Europe: A Guide to Archives and Libraries by the University of Wisconsin. Searchable by subject.
HistoryWorldis sponsored by Britain's Virtual Teacher Center and contains historical articles and about 4000 historical events. Good overviews by theme such as religion.
Note that ALA Reference and User Services Association have created guidelines for genealogy and local history collections:
Perhaps the single best source is The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy [3d ed.] by Szucs and Hargreaves Luebking. An excellent introduction arranged by record type. The Librarian's Genealogy Notebook by Elizabeth D. Moore is another well regarded standard. Includes coverage of the reference interview, annotated bibliographies, and a variety of essential topics.Genealogy for the First Time: Research Your Family History by Laura Best is aimed at the beginner. It is clear and helpful for all, including the librarian who needs the basics.
Ancestry's Red Book provides a rich variety of sources for each state and the District of Columbia. Country and town information is especially helpful.
Two especially useful guides to genealogical resources are Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Recordsby Kory Meyerink and The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogyby Loretta Szucs and Sandra Luebking.
Scoring well in ranked lists are:
AfriGeneasis an excellent site for those interested in ancestors of African descent. Good beginner's guide. Available information varies notably from state to state. Surnames database is useful.
The Genealogy Learning Center [Genealogy.com] is very helpful for the beginner.
GenDooris a genealogy search engine.
Genealogy Today.com is another site with good content for the beginner.
Cemetery records are often important in genealogy. Internment.net contains searchable information for over 1700 world cemeteries, most in the U.S.Cemetery Junctionis not well organized but lists over 18,000 cemeteries in the U.S.
Librarians Serving Genealogists provides good collection development guidelines and polices. Other material is useful but dated.
For younger students, My History is America's History provides useful information on family history.
The National Archives and Records Genealogy Page describes its census, immigration, and military records.
Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records: A Genalogy Guide.
ProGenealogistsis a massive collection of links under the heading "United States Genealogy Sleuth." Excellent organization.
Researching Your Family Tree is an easily understood and interactive course for beginning genealogists.
RootsWebalso claims to the largest site of WWW links. Good coverage of genealogy mailing lists.
The USGenWebproject is an interesting and growing source for genealogical content. Volunteers post queries and answers. The TNGenWebProjectis the Tennessee member. Good place for queries. Includes county links.
The WorldGenWeb Projectis focused on genealogy internationally. Organized by region.
1. The William C. Robinson Memorial Library has just received the latest volume of the Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Since other Cambridge histories are shelved in the Reference Department, your colleague wants to do the same with this set. Examine a Cambridge History set and provide a rationale for placing this set either in the reference room or in the stacks. Focus on the degree to which the Cambridge histories are "genuine" reference works. Who would use them and how?
2. A teacher [add what level] needs help in creating a website with links to sources in U.S. Native American history. Identify a reasonable pool and then select and evaluate three comprehensive sites.
3. A student interested in colonial U.S. history wants to find primary historical documents on the pilgrims. Useful sites? How easy would it be for this student to find hard copy documents in a reasonably equipped college library?
4. A library science faculty member teaching a course in the history of the book is revising his lecture on Gutenberg. He wishes to know what notable events occurred in the 1450s when the first European book was printed from movable metal type and who might be contemporaries of Gutenberg. Which sources provide the best answer? Other useful sources? Please include some comment on the utility of time line resources.
5. An undergraduate student seeks reliable information on General Custer. Begin with the general encyclopedias, then subject specific sources. Which sources are best? How do you know if a biographical source is valid? Similarities and differences between the sources?
6. An undergraduate student needs primary sources on the placement of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in camps during World War II. What can you find on the web? How do you know when a source is a legitimate primary one?
7. A public school teacher needs to know if Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride" is authentic in its description of this historic event. Discuss your strategy and what you discovered.
*8. A student [ add what level] wants to know what "caused" WWI. Your strategy? Results?
9. As an academic reference librarian and Choicereviewer you have received the Oxford Companion to U.S. Military History [you may substitute another "companion" title on a historical topic if you wish]. You have noticed that several publishers are issuing "companions" on a variety of historical topics. What is a companion? To what degree are these reference books that should be in the reference room rather than circulating works for the stacks?
10. A graduate student needs scholarship on Gabriele D'Annunzio, the Italian patriot and political leader. You encourage her to useHistorical Abstracts, but wonder if other databases would also be helpful. Which other database titles would you consider? How helpful were they?
11. A patron wishes to know the population of Richmond, VA in 1900. Discuss your search strategy and any difficulties in locating the answer.
12. A patron needs help in finding biographical information on Maurice Gamelin. You think of the old standard, the Chambers Biographical Dictionary[Ref CT 103 .C4 1986], but want to consider other sources such as the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography[Ref CT 103 .M27] or even a more specialized source such as Who's Who in World War II[Ref D 736 .M38] or Biographical Dictionary of World War II. How does Chamberscompare to other biographical sources?
13. As a reference librarian with an assignment to history, you are responsible for developing both the reference collections and the general collections housed in the stacks. Which scholarly periodicals in history would you review regularly to keep up with the field and to develop the collections? You might begin with Reviews in American History[Per Z 1236 .R47].
14. A student [add level] seeks information on the War of Jenkin's Ear. Best source? Are the quick/easy web sources as adequate as the historical companions/encyclopedias and handbooks typically found in hard copy in the reference room?
15. A community member had decided to begin work on a family history. She needs to know what to do first? And then?
16. A patron needs help in understanding the meaning of these words: "ancient people," and "culture." She wants more than a brief dictionary definition, but doesn't want to read an entire monograph either. Best sources?
17. A [add level] student need information on the seven wonders of the ancient world. Compare treatment in children's, adult, and subject encyclopedias. You might also take a quick look at WWW resources. Best source?
18. A public library patron has recently read a work by Isiah Berlin and would like to know more about him. What sources would be useful?
19. A student [add level] needs information about the Knoxville sit-in's. Your strategy? What sources would you suggest The most productive one?
20. The American Memory Project has received a great deal of media attention. Go to the American Memory website, browse in a few of the collections, select one collection for examination, and comment on its likely utility for K12 students and teachers.
21. A parent needs a picture that can be photocopied for an elementary school project of the Union Navy's ironclad Monitor and the Confederate Virginia (previously named Merrimack). Which source provided the best images of these famous warships?
22. A student [add level] of military history is interested in maps of the Seven Years War. What can you find?
23. A high school student wants to know if St. Patrick was a real person or a mythical one. What sources would be accessible and reasonably accurate?
24. You have been asked to review the U.S. History hard copy chronologies in reference and suggest one for the ready reference shelf. At the same time, you have received a query about the Louisiana Purchase and decide to use that to compare responses in the different chronologies. With web resources available, do you need these hard copy chronologies Which chronology is best? Why?
25. A newspaper reporter has been asked to write a feature on 1908 for an late 2007 issue of the paper. She has asked for help in identifying trends, fads, and events of 1908. Which sources were most useful for this purpose?
26. An Internet trainer has been asked to develop a workshop on comprehensive genealogical sources on the WWW. She has read about the Family Search on-line by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and wonders about its utility. What can you learn about this source?