Library

Related Subject Guides:

Australian History
Classical Studies
Politics
Sociology

Key Resources

Keyword searching

When searching catalogues and databases, be ready to use a wide range of terms, both general and precise. For example:

• Geographical names - Australia, America, Asia, Melbourne, etc.
• Time periods - Ancient, Medieval, Classical, Modern, 1788-1850 etc.
• Additional concepts - society, population, gender, racism, etc

If your search returns too many items, use narrower or combinations of terms. If you do not find enough, try broader or alternative terms.

Reference material

Use reference material to find definitions of unfamiliar terms, summaries of topics or as a starting point for information. The following are just some of the reference sources available in your area.

• Atlapedia - searchable online modern world atlas
• Dictionaries and Encyclopedias- databases
• Gardiner's Atlas of English History - 1898 edition
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Periodical Historical Atlas - of Europe for each century 1 CE to 1700 CE
• Perseus Project Interactive Atlas - linked from all the site's texts. Includes a searchable version of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
• Spartacus - encyclopedia of modern history and politics

Internet Resources

Gateways

• AcademicInfo - subject menus, and searchable by keyword
• Australian History on the Internet
• BUBL- subject menus, and searchable by keyword or Dewey number
• HUMBUL - History- key British humanities gateway, searchable by keyword
• Portal- British Academy's subject guide to resources
• Voice of the Shuttle - subject menus, and searchable by keyword
• WWW-VL - the Virtual Library's humanities section

Online Texts

• Documenting a Democracy- collection of key founding documents of Australian democracy
• Don Mabry's Historical Text Archive - arranged by geographical areas and by themes
• Encyclopedia of the 1848 Revolutions - search by Table of Contents
• Eurodocs - primary documents from medieval to modern Western Europe
• Internet Classics Archive- classical literature
• The Labyrinth Library- medieval literature and history
• The Online Books Page- search engine for online editions from the University of Pennsylvania
• Oxford Text Archive- major works of the Western canon
• Perseus Project- ancient Greece , Rome and Renaissance England
• Project Gutenberg- texts from all ages and genres
• Project Gutenberg - Australia- Australian texts on Gutenberg, and other texts available under Australian copyright regulations

Topic Resources 

• 18th Century Resources - literature, history and thought of the period
• Abzu- study of the Ancient Near East
• Australian Studies Network - includes primary source material
• Australian War Memorial - resources and links for Australia 's military experience
• Byzantium- Byzantine studies
• Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! - exploring the French Revolution
• NetSERF - Medieval Studies resources, arranged in themes
• ORB - Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies
• The Labyrinth - gateway and resources for medieval studies
• Perseus Project - resources in classics, English Renaissance and other histories
• PoCo Web - Post-colonial and post-imperial literatures - includes wide ranging contextual essays for the British imperial world
• Victoria's History on-line - strong focus on local and oral history

Societies and Associations

• Australian Historical Association
• American Council of Learned Societies - starting point for US humanities societies
• Institute of Historical Research - UK site with articles, projects and links
• Oral History Association of Victoria
• Royal Australian Historical Society
• Scholarly Societies Project - History - menu of web sites of organizations all over the world