Russian History Research

Prepared by Jonathan Daly, Susan F. Augustine, and Maria Moore

 

Finding Books and Journals

If you’re looking for a particular book or journal, or searching for books on your topic, consult the following sources in the following order.

 

1.    UICCAT - The University of Illinois at Chicago’s online card catalog tells you everything the UIC libraries own, including journals, books, movies, microfilm, maps, manuscripts, and other media. If you want to find a book or a journal that contains a particular article you want, UICCAT is the first place you should look. Perform a title search for the title of the journal (not the title of the article) or the title of the book to find what you’re looking for.

 

To access UICCAT, go to the library’s home page (http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/) and click on the UICCAT button.

 

If you’re looking for books on a particular topic, do a keyword or subject search. Keep in mind that when you perform a keyword search, the computer looks for the words you type in every field of every record (i.e., publisher, title, author, notes, subject, etc.). Doing a subject search is a more precise way of searching because the computer searches only the subject field. However, you must know the correct subject heading (word for word) or you will retrieve nothing. To follow are some subject searches that will retrieve items about Russian History. Type these headings exactly as they’re listed - dashes and all.

 

Russia -- History

Russia -- History -- 19th century

Russia -- Intellectual life

 

These are just a few examples of hundreds of subject headings on the topic of Russia. Consult a reference librarian on the second floor of the Main (Daley) Library for help finding additional headings. Or, simply consult the Library of Congress Subject Heading books, located at the reference desk.

 

Keyword searches can be useful as well. Try typing the following keyword searches to retrieve personal accounts about Russia.

 

Russia and personal narratives

Russia and sources

 

You should always connect your keywords with the word “and”. In addition, try searching multiple keywords (synonyms) to retrieve all of the sources available on your topic.

2. If UIC doesn’t have the exact book you want, the next place you want to look is in Illinet. Illinet is an online catalog (like UICCAT) that tells you what 45 different academic libraries in the state of Illinois own. It does not tell you what UIC owns, so do not search here first. You can access Illinet by going to the library home page, clicking on the button labeled Resources. Illinet Online is the second choice under Online Catalogs. You can access it either through the Web or through telnet. Both will give you the same information. Telnet is faster; the Web version is more user-friendly.

 

If you find a book you are looking for in Illinet, and you’re sure UIC does not have an available copy, you can go ahead and order a copy directly through Illinet by “requesting a copy” once you’ve found one.

 

3. If UIC doesn’t have the exact journal you want, also search Illinet. Remember to do a title search for the journal, not the article. If the University of Illinois at Urbana has the journal, fill out a interlibrary loan form requesting that a copy of the article be sent from Urbana. These forms can be found at the Reference desk on the second floor and at the Interlibrary Loan desk on the first floor. If any other library in Illinet has the journal, but Urbana doesn’t, you must search WorldCat to obtain the OCLC (Accession number) and then fill out a request form (see below).

 

4. If you can’t find the book you need in Illinet, the last place you will want to check is WorldCat. Remember, WorldCat is not a place you go to find materials on your topic; it is a place you search as a last resort when you can’t find a specific item that you know exists. WorldCat contains records from thousands of libraries throughout the world. It can be difficult to search, so consult a reference librarian if you’re having trouble finding your book. You can access WorldCat by clicking on Resources from the library home page. It is the third choice under the heading Online Catalogs.

 

If you do find what you want in WorldCat, copy down the Accession number, the place of publication, the title, the author, the date of publication, and the publisher. Next, fill out an Interlibrary Loan request form at either the Interlibrary Loan desk on the first floor or at the Reference desk on the second floor.

 

5. If you can’t find the journal you need at Urbana, search WorldCat. You can access WorldCat by clicking on Resources from the library home page. It is the third choice under the heading Online Catalogs.

 

Fill out an interlibrary loan form, found at the Reference desk or the Interlibrary Loan desk on the first floor, requesting that a copy of the article be sent to you. Remember to copy down the accession number, the place of publication, and the citation information for the particular article you need.

 

 

Finding Articles

When you’re looking for articles on your topic, do not search an online catalog (e.g., UICCAT). Instead, you must search what’s called an article database or index. These electronic and print indexes carry citations from numerous journals (typically from one field, such as history), arranged by subject. This is the fastest way to find articles on your topic within a body of literature.

 

What you actually find in these indexes are citations to articles, not the articles themselves (although some online indexes do include the full text of articles). Citations include the author and title of the article, the title of the journal, the volume and sometimes number of the issue, the date, the page number, and occasional other information. Some records include an abstract, which is a summary of the article, along with the citation. The abstract will let you know whether this article is truly on your topic - something that isn’t always clear from the title, and the citation will let you know where the article is published.

 

Once you’ve gathered citations for many articles, you must then do a title search in UICCAT for the title of the journal. UIC does not own every journal indexed in every database. Therefore, copy down citations for more articles than you actually need. UICCAT will tell you whether UIC owns a particular journal, and if so, where it’s located.

 

To follow are article databases/indexes that cover the topic of Russian History, although not exclusively.

 

Historical Abstracts - electronic and print; probably the best index for historical information. The online version allows you to search a topic during a particular period (e.g., Agriculture in Russia during the 1850s).

 

Humanities Abstracts - electronic and print (in print, this is called Humanities Index); covers all fields in the Humanities including history.

 

MLA (Modern Language Association Bibliography) - electronic and print; primarily a literature database, but can be used to find sources that pertain to Russian (e.g., the Russian Revolution portrayed in literature).

 

ArchivesUSA - electronic; for in-depth research. Tells you where primary sources relating to Russian History are located (e.g., correspondence from Baron Mikhail Aleksandrovich Taube can be found at the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture at the Columbia University Library in New York). Do a Collection Search to search by topic.

 

Bibliographies and other Reference Sources

_    The Modern encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet history / Academic International Press, 1976-2000

Main Reference/2d fl   DK14 .M6

 

_    Dictionary of the Russian Revolution / George Jackson, editor-in-chief; Greenwood Press, 1989.

Main Reference/2d fl   DK265 .D49 1989

 

_    The Cambridge encyclopedia of Russia and the former Soviet Union, 2nd ed. / Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Main Reference/2d fl   DK14 .C35 1994    

 

_    The American Historical Association's guide to historical literature / general editor, Mary Beth Norton; associate editor, Pamela Gerardi, 1995.

Main Reference/2d fl   Z6201 .A55 1995           

 

_    Longman History of Russia - series with many titles. (Do a title search in UICCAT for Longman History of Russia)

 

_    An atlas of Russian history; eleven centuries of changing / Allen F. Chew, 1970.

Main Maps/3d fl Atlas  G2111.S1 C5 1970

 

_    Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia / John Channon with Robert Hudson

Main Maps/3d fl Atlas  G2111.S1 .C4 1995

 

_    Russia/U.S.S.R.: a selective annotated bibliography of books in English / Anthony Thompson, 1979.

Main Book Stacks       Z2491 .T45

 

_    The Russian Revolution, 1905-1921: a bibliographic guide to works in English / compiled by Murray Frame, 1995.

Main Book Stacks       Z2510 .F73 1995

 

_    A bibliography of works in English on early Russian history to 1800 / Compiled by Peter A. Crowther, 1969.

Main Book Stacks       Z2506 .C75 1969b