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This course brings together many different academic subjects. Depending on your research paper topic, you may need to consult a broad range of library resources.
Here are a few databases that will probably be helpful no matter what your topic:
IUCAT - online catalog of the IU Libraries' collections.
Tips: use the Advanced Keyword Search.Try the subject term:
automobile industry and trade united states
Or just use the subject term automobile in combination with your own keywords.
You can limit by date of publication to find primary sources.
WorldCat - combined online catalogs of most libraries in the US. Materials not available at IU can be requested directly from WorldCat: just click on the "request materials from ILL" link
Academic Search (EBSCO) - access to popular and scholarly articles in journals and magazines on many topics
JSTOR - provides searchable full-text of historical runs of important scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, sciences, ecology, and business.
Factiva - fulltext collection of news sources
Lexis-Nexis Academic - fulltext collection of news sources, including radio/tv transcripts
To explore all the library resources available on each subject, take a look at the Resources by Subject page.
If you decide to research a historical topic, you'll want to check:
America: History & Life - access to articles in scholarly journals on American History (use Historical Abstracts for the history of the rest of the world).
Readers Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 - access to American popular magazines (primary sources for historical topics). Tip: this database provides citations only. To find the full text, click on the IU-Link button, then on "check for availability in IUCAT." Some older magazines have been digitized --look for links in IUCAT to Google Books and HathiTrust.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers - fulltext archive of the New York Times and other major US newspapers back to the 1800s (primary sources for historical topics; includes ads, photos, cartoons, etc)
For business and economics topics, try the databases listed here:
Resources by Subject: Business
Resources by Subject: Economics
If you're interested in popular culture, advertising, psychology and/or sociology, here are a few good sources:
Film Literature Index - access to articles about film, including movie reviews
International Index to the Performing Arts - access to articles about music, theatre, film, etc (includes articles about commercials)
PsycINFO - access to articles in psychology journals
Sociological Abstracts - access to articles in sociology journals
To research government regulation of the automobile industry, consult resources available through the Government Information collection. For analysis of political issues, search International Political Science Abstracts. For environmental issues, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management.
For historical images of cars, try:
The Emergence of Advertising in America and Ad*Access - two digital archives of historical ads
Library of Congress American Memory Project: American from the Great Depression to World War II - huge online collection of photographs of American life (lots of cars--search for automobiles to find them)
AP Photo Archive - searchable online archive of Associated Press photographs
Google Image Search - try this for images of specific models
For additional image sources, see this guide to Advertising, Illustrations and Photographs
Some other useful resources:
Information about evaluating web sites
How to cite your sources
What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source?
Updated by Celestina Savonius-Wroth (cewroth@ indiana.edu), March 22, 2011
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