Electronic Databases
and Historical Research

An electronic database is a computerized collection of information, organized so that it can be expanded, manipulated, and retrieved rapidly for various uses. Electronic databases intersect with historical research in two ways. First, historians retrieve information from external databases. Second, historians create their own databases to help them organize their research and writing.


Retrieving Data

Historians most commonly use databases for bibliographical searches. The following is a partial list of databases relevant to historical research. It includes some databases accessible to the public and some accessible only to Hanover students and faculty. It identifies databases most valuable in locating secondary sources (modern studies of the past) and primary sources (sources from the past). Databases providing information on primary sources are typically more specialized and their coverage is patchy. To develop an exhaustive bibliography in some subject areas, there may be no alternative but to leave the privacy of your room and go to brick-and-mortar libraries. There are still few full-text databases of primary sources that are free to the public or available to Hanover students through the college (though some, like Early English Books Online, can sustain a lifetime of research). Thus, primary source research generally requires making inter-library loan requests or traveling to libraries and archives.

1. Library Catalogues

College and university library catalogs remain valuable tools for bibliographical searches, both for secondary sources (especially books) and primary sources (modern editions of texts and, if their catalogs are available online, rare books and manuscripts).

Select Online Library Catalogues includes links to Palni (and the Duggan Library), local college and university libraries, and a selection of major research libraries. The list of local libraries is intended to provide Hanover students with a convenient way of finding materials in the area. If there are other local libraries that you would like to see on the list, please let me know. Some of the major research libraries (such as Harvard's Hollis Online Catalog) are extensive and, though they alone cannot suffice for an exhaustive search, they provide one of the quickest ways of gaining bibliographical information on books.

2. Databases of Secondary Sources.

There are two essential databases for finding bibliographical information on secondary sources in history: America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts. Both are available to Hanover students online.

America: History and Life is the single most important bibliographical database for secondary sources in U.S. and Canadian history. It provides bibliographical citations for books, articles (with abstracts), and dissertations published since 1964. Hanover students and faculty now have online access at the web site of ABC-Clio. For scholarship before 1964, there are printed indexes (organized by year) available in the Duggan Library.

Historical Abstracts is the single most important bibliographical database for secondary sources in European and World history since 1450. It provides bibliographical citations of books, articles (with abstracts), and dissertations published since 1955. Hanover students and faculty now have online access at the web site of ABC-Clio. For scholarship before 1955, there are printed indexes (organized by year) available in the Duggan Library.

Early English Books Online gives access to nearly every English books printed from the invention of the printing press (1475) to 1700. The books are full texts, available as facsimile images (photographs of the books themselves) in the form of pdf files. (An Adobe Reader is necessary to read pdf files.) It also includes a search engine to locate books. This is a remarkable collection for both small and large research projects.

Electronic Texts Collections on the Web is a select list of web sites that feature electronic texts. Beware. The texts are uneven in quality. Many contain errors of all kinds, and they typically lack scholarly annotations and original page numbers.

ARTFL includes multiple databases on French literary and historical texts. Begun as a French dictionary, the main database enables scholars to search for French words used in nearly 2000 works of French literature since the 17th century; it is especially helpful for studies in French language and literature. Other databases sponsored or co-sponsored by ARTFL include The Textes de Français Ancien, the ARTFL Encyclopédie Project, Pamphlets and Periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848, the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, and Renaissance Dante in Print (1472-1629).

Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a consortium of college and university libraries, including the Duggan Library, that shares (through interlibrary loan) materials that ordinary would not circulate. The materials are mostly microfilm and microfiche reproductions of archive and manuscript collections from around the world. The collections are highly specialized and patchy, but among them are some of the world's most valuable archives and manuscripts. Although the Center provides a list of all the archival and manuscript collections on microfilm, a bibliographical database for a few of its collections, and a limited catalog search, it is impossible to search the entire collection for specific items. You in effect must know what you want beforehand. To profit from this valuable resource, it is probably best to consult with Hanover history professors about the nature and type of sources available through the CRL.

Research Library Group (RLG) is a consortium of colleges and universities offering a large and impressive collection of electronic databases. It includes bibliographical databases for secondary sources and for archival and primary sources, and it offers some content databases. It is currently not available through the Duggan Library. The closest library offering RLG services is Indiana University-Bloomington, which is free to the public.

Creating Databases

Historians create their own databases to help them organize their research and writing. Popular database software such as Microsoft's Access and Borland's Paradox may prove useful for some forms of historical inquiry. But for most historical research, especially research rooted in the analysis and interpretation of texts (whether they be books or manuscripts), there are software programs specifically designed to create text- and bibliographical-oriented databases. Examples of commercial software include Citation and Endnotes. Scribe is a free program with a tutorial. These programs are the electronic equivalent of the traditional notecard and filebox system of taking notes, the system of recording bibliographical information, taking notes, and assigning subject headings to notes and texts. The difference is that the software enables you to find, organize, and manipulate notes and bibliographical citations rapidly; move material easily between the database and word processor; and generate bibliographies and footnotes quickly.

Last Updated: September 4, 2001 (minor revisions 1/25/08)
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