Subject encyclopedias can provide detailed and authoritative background information that can help you to begin your research. The articles can define terms, give an overview of a topic and suggest directions for narrowing your research. They can also provide bibliographies of books and articles for more in-depth research.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Renaissance and Reformation -- Extensive bibliographic essays in the history of early modern Europe. There is no separate article for "Piracy," but the topic will be covered under headings like "Mediterranean" (with a subsection on "Slaves and Corsairs"), "Maritime Venice," and "Religio-Military Orders" and "War and Trade."
Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd. ed. more comprehensive, 3rd still in progress). Encyclopedia of Islamic religion, culture, and history.
New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed., 2003. Covers all aspects of the history, doctrine, and discipline of the Roman Catholic Church.
Journal Finder —Perhaps the Library’s best-kept secret. Type in the title of your journal to see which databases provide access to it in full text. (Access from the Library’s main page using the drop-down for “Also Try” beneath the VIRGO search box.) This and Google Scholar are the best ways to track down citations.
Historical Abstracts Find articles about the history of the world from 1450 to the present, published in over 2,000 journals from many countries. Includes book reviews. Does not include articles about the US or Canada. For these see America: History & Life.
Can use a wildcard to expand searches: Ha?sburgs (for Habsburgs or Hapsburgs)
Or truncate: pira* to search for pirates or piracy
Limit search to a specific time period- Search: Corsairs AND Algiers
Historical Period from 1500 CE to 1700 CE
Dissertations and Theses Fulltext A searchable database of dissertations and these. Much of this literature is relevant and has not made it into the book or journal literature yet.
Google Scholar A useful free index to scholarly literature. "Cited by" can show more recent articles that have used a source of interest. "Related articles" also provides links to additional sources. In Settings, you can create "access links" for the University of virginia Library (Find@UVA).
International Medieval Bibliography Lists articles from books and journals on any topic relating to the European Middle Ages (ca. 400-1500). Click the blue Enter Databases button to start and choose the IMB from the menu on the next page.
Index Islamicus Search for books and articles in periodicals about Islam and the Muslim world. Also includes reviews
JSTOR Full-text backfiles of many important scholarly journals. Coverage is usually from the first issue to 3-5 years before the present.
Project Muse Full-text articles from humanities and social science journals, in some ways updating content found in JSTOR. A good database for articles related to gender studies and social history.
MLA Bibliography Lists books plus articles and essays from journals and books on literature, linguistics, and folklore.
Women's Studies International Find articles related to women's experience during all historical periods. Can use wildcard or truncate similar to Historical Abstracts, but there is no way to limit to historical period except by keyword search (ex., piracy and early modern).
VIRGO-- The U.Va. Library Catalog
Keyword search should be "Google-like," just enter whatever terms you want; no need for connectors like and.
Will search the title, author's name or description of the item.
There are also some Subject terms that indicate primary source materials:
Archives*
Correspondence*
Diaries*
Early works to 1800
Facsimilies
Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Pamphlets
Personal narratives (used in relation to specific events only)
Songs and music
Sources
Speeches, addresses, etc.*
Treaties
*Used with individuals' names,classes of persons (e.g., soldiers), and organizations.
VIRGO Classic In Basic Search mode choose "Begins With" and then select "Title" when searching for a known item, or "Subject" when searching for terms like Pirates will reveal related subject headings and different subdivisions--for example, Pirates--Africa, North--History--18th century.
Google Books Searches the full text of thousands of books. If used in conjunction with Amazon.com full text search of a book, can get most of the text of a book.
Calendar of State Papers Index to British government documents, including summaries and excerpts of correspondence, reports and other papers. The 16th and 17th centuries are most relevant for the purposes of this course. The Calendars are divided by series (Foreign, Domestic,Ireland, Colonial) and by reign (ex., Elizabeth I, Charles I, Charles II). Many are available in full text from Hathi Trust. For an example, see Calendar of State Papers Relating to Ireland , v. 1, and search foir "Baltimore" and "Turks." Gale, a company that has produced online editions of the State Papers (which we haven't purchased at this time), has provided some essays explaining the types of materials available in the State Papers, and putting them in context:
Early English Books Online (EEBO) Every significant work published in English from 1475 to 1700. Searchable text and page images. Because of early modern variants in spelling, it may be easier to take advantage of the subject terms. Take advantage of the "Select from a List" options. (You can search within the list.) You can do the same thing for full text keywords, as well as search for variant spellings.)
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) Searchable full text and page images for books, almanacs, broadsides, magazines, pamphlets, etc in any language from the British Isles and North America, and in English from the rest of the world, 1701-1800.
Times of London, 1785-1985 Search the full text of The Times (London) including articles, advertisements, and picture captions. See an image of either just the article or the full page.
Early American Imprints:
Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 Searchable full text with page images of many different types of materials published in 17th, 18th, and early 19th-century America. Browsable by genre, subject, author, printer, place of publication, and language.
America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1991 Searchable, full text collection of American newspapers.
Proquest Congressional Publications Searchable, full text collection of U.S. government documents, including treaties, laws, and Congressional reports. Use Advanced Search, and notice date coverage for different types of documents. Serials Set, Laws, and Congresisonal Record and Predecessors will be most relevant.
Unavailable through VIRGO or unavailable in full-text via our article databases does not mean inaccessible or even seriously inconvenient. U.Va. Library has a great interlibrary loan service that should put the needed article in your inbox or the book in your hands within a few days of your requesting it.
Create an account with our Interlibrary Loan Department (log on as first-time user).
ArtStor Images of world art from all periods, including paintings, drawings, prints, historic photographs, architecture and design. Tips on using ArtStor.