General Humanities

Facts and Background Information
Selected print and electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.
Books
Locate items in the library catalog and other libraries.
Articles
Use indexes to search for articles in journals, proceedings, etc.
Primary Sources
Websites
Recommended academic, professional, and learned societies sites, and more.
Contact a Librarian

Below are a few major, frequently used multidisciplinary Humanities sources. See also the research guides in specific humanities disciplines.

Please consult with a reference librarian for directions to many more sources in your topic. Internet resources require a Tufts I.D. number for off-campus access (authorized users statement).

 

Facts and Background Information     [back to top]

Britannica Online and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

Find Books     [back to top]

These databases use Library of Congress subject headings:

Library Catalog How To Use

Boston Library Consortium Catalogs How To Use

Worldcat How To Use
Catalog records from thousands of North American libraries.

For more on how to find books, see Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF).

Find Articles     [back to top]

Expanded Academic ASAP How To Use
Articles from more than 1,500 scholarly, trade, and general-interest publications, including national news and commentary. Coverage is from 1980 to current and is updated daily. Some full text is available.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Institute for Scientific Information, 1974- How To Use
Provides author, subject and citation access to journal articles and book reviews in the arts and humanities. Coverage from 1974.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index
A comprehensive index to nearly 12 million biographical sketches in more than 2,700 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world. NEW FEATURE: A complete list of sources indexed is now available by using the Extended Search.

General Reference Center 1980- How To Use
Use this general-interest database to search magazines, reference books, and newspapers for information on current events, popular culture, the arts and sciences, sports, etc.

Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI). 1970-
Scholarship on Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States: citations to articles, book reviews, documents, literary works, and other material in more than 500 international social science and humanities journals, published from 1970 to the present. Many citations are linked to full-text.

International Medieval Bibliography. Brepols, 1967-
An international index to medieval topics (400-1500) in literature, language, history, archaeology, art, music, theater, Arabic and Islamic studies, and religion and philosophy. IMB covers 4,500 journals and over 5,000 miscellany volumes in 30 languages.

Iter
An index of interdisciplinary journal literature on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Includes citations for articles, books, bibliographies, catalogs, abstracts, and discographies.

Electronic journals

Periodicals are listed in the library catalog (how to use). Holdings in all formats are unified in one record, and most entries for journals held in electronic format contain a hyperlink to the source; searches in the web-based catalog enable one to follow these links directly. A complete list of electronic journals is on the Tisch homepage under Electronic Journals.

Many humanities/social sciences journals held in digital format are parts of Project Muse or JSTOR. Although these databases include search engines for the journals they contain, the indexes listed above are the most comprehensive and authoritative sources for the literature of the discipline, and frequently link directly to our electronic journals.

For more on how to find articles, see Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF).

Primary Sources     [back to top]

AP Images
AP Images is a database of every news event covered by the Associated Press for the last 150 years; it contains over 3 million news photographs from the 1840s through the present. All images may be downloaded and used for educational purposes ONLY.

ArchivesUSA How To Use
Information about primary source materials from U.S. manuscript repositories, with detailed indexes of manuscript and other special collections.

ARTstor
ARTstor is an image database of architecture, painting, photography, sculpture, decorative arts and design, and archaeological and anthropological objects--with associated catalog data--from many major collections. Users are able to register themselves via the tools in the ARTstor Library. Faculty who want the higher level of access that allows them to create folders to share Image Groups with students or colleagues need to upgrade their user accounts by selecting "Instructor Privileges Manager" from the "Tools" toolbar menu. When registering for Instructor Privileges, users will be prompted to obtain the required authorization code and password from their local ARTstor administrator. Faculty should call the reference desk at 617-627-3460 to obtain the code and password.

Early American Imprints 1639-1819
An online collection reproducing every extant book, pamphlet, and broadside published in America from 1639 to 1819 - the complete printed, non-serial source materials of American culture for the 17th and 18th centuries. Covers titles in the Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker bibliographies. Available also in microform: TISCH MICROFORMS F700.

Early English Books Online How To Use
Over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661), comprising all known English-language books from the beginning of printing to 1700. Years 1474-1640 are available also in microform, TISCH MICROFORMS R484.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online
ECCO aims to deliver every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the Enghteenth Century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas: books, directories, Bibles, scientific treatises, almanacs, laws, court cases, sheet music, sermons, advertisements, speeches, handbills, parish registers, pool books, cookbooks, etc.

Websites     [back to top]

Voice of the Shuttle: Webpage for Humanities Research

For more on how to find and evaluate websites, see How to Evaluate Web Sources.

Contact a Librarian     [back to top]

Christopher Barbour. Contact with questions about library collections.
Please see research guides to the individual humanities disciplines for contact information of reference and instruction librarians.

Now at Tisch

Check out the podcast series, Tisch Talks!

Did you know that Tisch Library has an audio magazine, Tisch Talks? Featured topics include interviews with visiting authors, using the library catalog, and finding book reviews. Check out this series, or better yet, set your RSS reader to subscribe to new editions automatically.

Featured Resource

Eighteenth-Century Collections Online

ECCO aims to deliver every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the Eighteenth Century...

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