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HIST 065: Cities of (Im)migrants (SC): Find Relevant Books

History 065: Cities of (Im)migrants: Buenos Aires, Lima, Miami, New York (Armus) Fall 2016

Tracing Citations

You can use citation indexes to count how many times a source has been cited, which is one measure of scholarly influence. You can also use citation indexes to see which books/articles have cited the source in question.

By tracing a source forward and backward through time, you are tracing a thread of the scholarly conversation on this topic.

Find Book Reviews in History

A scholarly book review offers both an evaluation of the book and a sense of how the book fits in with other academic works on the topic. You can use academic book reviews to identify other relevant sources.

The database America, History and Life contains book reviews on US history (along with scholarly journal articles and other sources). The database Historical Abstracts offers book reviews, articles, and more for non-US history.

Dissertations

Doctoral students go through an exhaustive literature search when writing their dissertations. They also tend to work on new questions, sometimes ones that have received very little attention from scholars before. You can obtain many of these dissertations and benefit from all the bibliographic treasues and new ideas. Check ProQuest Dissertations & Theses to identify dissertations on your topic.

Books in the TriCo Libraries

Use Tripod to find books held by the TriCollege libraries.  You can request books from the other TriCo schools and have them delivered to Swarthmore.
In McCabe, books are shelved by the Library of Congress (LC) classification system.  A-G call numbers are on the lower level of McCabe (below the main floor).  H-K call numbers are on Level 2 (above the main floor), and L-Z call numbers are on Level 3.  

Use One Good Book to Find Others
When you've located a relevant book, there are several strategies you can use to find additional related works.
  • Search by the subject headings you find in the book's Tripod record--this will help you find other books on the same topic, classified with the same subject heading. (view example)
  • Consult the book's bibliography and use Tripod and library databases to track down some of the sources that author cited.



Books Beyond the TriCo Libraries

The Swarthmore Libraries can help you get books, even when we don't own a copy.

Here's how to get a book:

  1. Search Tripod for the book title. (Need more books? Search Worldcat.)
  2. If no TriCo copies are available, login to EZBorrow. See if you can request a copy. (Usually takes about 1 week to arrive.)
  3. If no TriCo or EZBorrow copies area available, fill out the Interlibrary Loan Request form. (Usually takes 1-2 weeks to arrive.)

What about articles?  We can help you get articles, too.

  1. First, check Tripod for the article.
  2. If we don't have access, place an Article Delivery Request. Most requests are filled by email. (Usually takes 2 days or less.)
Subjects: History