HIST 1000

Navigate Willis Library

Willis Library has five floors: LL, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Floor.  For location and map information, please click here.  The Reference Department offers students a short Library orientation, consisting of tours and sessions on using electronic resources.  If you are new to UNT, or just have not utilized the UNT Libraries, yet, you would find these orientations very helpful.  For a list of orientation sessions, click here.

Use the Subject Guides

To help you begin to locate materials you need in order to write a history-topic paper for class, there is a History Subject Guide on this website, and also a guide for Latin American Studies. Use general sources, such as encyclopedias, only in order to gain background information on the topic you are researching.  You will need to use more specific resources for your paper -- books and journal articles. 

Once you have a clear picture of the specific topic on which you are focusing, search the online catalog to find books on the topic and work with the printed indexes (on the 1st Floor) or the electronic databases, to locate articles about the topic.  You have access to 26 electronic databases on the Library website that are specifically for finding information about history topics.  There are 8 electronic databases on Spanish topics or in the Spanish language, that might also be helpful to you, if you are researching a Latin American Studies topic.

For more information, click here for online tutorials on how to access library materials. 

The column to the right of this screen contains links to information that should be very useful to you.  From that column, you can link directly to the UNT Libraries' catalog and also the electronic databases, which you can use to find books and articles of interest to you.  

If you discover a resource you need that is not part of the UNT Library collection, you can request it through InterLibrary Loan -- there is a link to ILL in the column on the right of this screen.  It will take a few days, probably, for ILL to get the materials you need, so you should plan ahead and allow time for the material to arrive in time for you to use it.

If you do not live on campus and need to access the Library's electronic resources, there is also a link in the column for information about how to arrange access. 

 Find a Book

 Once you have located a book you want in the Library's catalog, write the call number down and follow these directions to find the book on the shelf.  To check out a book, take it to the Circulation Desk on the 1st Floor and present your current student ID card.  For your information, here is a link to the policies and procedures of the Circulation Department.

 Find a Periodical

If, in searching through the paper or electronic indexes, you find an article you would like to look at, write down the name of the journal (periodical, magazine)in which it is located, as well as it's volume number, the year of publication, and the page numbers of the article.  You will then need to go and find the periodical on the shelf.  

Periodicals in the UNT Libraries are shelved by title, not by call number like the books.  There are CURRENT PERIODICALS on the 1st Floor of Willis and BOUND PERIODICALS (which are older issues that have been bound together, usually by year) on the Lower Level.  (Periodicals about  music are the exception -- both current and bound music periodicals are in the music library on the 4th floor.)    If you find that you need a periodical that is shelved in remote storage, which you can tell by looking at the record for it in the library catalog, you can request it from Circulation using a special form.

Undergraduate students cannot check out current or bound periodicals and must use them in the Library.  The only exception to this rule is if you request a bound periodical that is in remote storage.

Find a Book Review

It can sometimes be helpful to look at reviews written by others about a book, if you are thinking of using it as a resource in your research.  Check the paper version of Book Review Digest in the Abstracts and Indexes section of the General Reference section at Willis Library, 1st Floor, to find citations for book reviews.  The Library also has a subscription to Book Review Digest via FirstSearch, which you can access to find abstracts, reviews of English-language fiction and non-fiction from approximately 100 U.S., Canadian, and British periodicals.

Another paper resource you can use to locate book reviews is Book Review Index Z1035.A1B6 in the Abstracts and Indexes section of General Reference in Willis Library.

Check out Materials at Other Libraries

You can get access to the collections of other libraries by obtaining a TexShare card through our Circulation Department.  The TexShare card allows you to use any public or academic library in Texas.  To apply for a TexShare card, please contact the Circulation Department in the Willis Library, call (940)565-2413, or send an e-mail request to circ@library.unt.edu.   Please be sure to include your name, your student ID number, and your address in the request.

Write the bibliography for your research paper correctly

When you have finished writing your research paper and it is time to make the bibliography citing all the sources you used in your paper, there are standard ways to do that.  If your professor has not suggested a standard he/she wants you to follow, refer to the Citation Guides & Style Manuals section of the webpage for helpful suggestions.

Evaluate websites

Sometimes it can be difficult to determine whether the information you learn out on the internet is valid.  We have created a tool to help you learn to how to evaluate websites which is available here.

Need help?

There are Librarians at the Reference Desk, who will be happy to help you.  Also, you can get online help by clicking on the link at the very top of the column to the right of this screen, called Ask a Librarian.  On that site, you can choose to get online help (a chat room with a librarian), email reference, or find local and toll free numbers to call a librarian.