The principal database for identifying journal articles in history are:
Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1964 to present and includes citations and links to book and media reviews.
There are several other very important article indexes, any of which might be crucial for research depending on the focus of your research:
If you have a citation for a journal article, and you want to obtain a copy of that article, you first need to determine whether the Library owns a copy of the journal issue. Therefore, the most important piece of information when beginning a search for a known journal article is the title of the journal, not the title of the article.
You will first check to see if we have online access to that journal. To do that, you will search for the journal (by title) using a catalog rather plainly named "Online Journals and Databases":
University of Illinois Library Catalog: Journal Search A catalog of the Library's journal collection, with emphasis on online journals and periodicals. Most useful as a catalog of e-journals, but you can also use it to locate print copies.
If the Library does not have online access to that journal issue, then you will check to see if we have it in print. To determine whether the Library owns the journal in print, you will search the regular Library Catalog:
University of Illinois Library Catalog Use the Library Catalog to identify books, journals (but not journal articles), microform collections, and digital collections owned by the University of Illinois. The Library Catalog is the primary tool for exploring the collections of the University of Illinois Library, the second largest academic library collection in the United States. In the Library Catalog you can search for books by subject, and you identify the location within the Library of a particular book or journal. Books and journals are organized in the library by subject. Each item is assigned one or more subject headings and a unique call number. Subject headings are standardized terms from the Library of Congress. The call number is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification or Library of Congress Classification. Boolean operators must be capitalized if used: AND, OR, NOT. Interface automatically truncates some search terms unless Boolean operators are used within the same query line. You can also browse catalog records by call number, creating a "virtual shelf browsing" experience.
If the Library does not have a print copy of the journal, then you will use your complete citation to request a copy through interlibrary loan:
ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan) If the item is not available in the Illinois catalog and it is not available through I-Share, then your next stop will be Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery. Login to Interlibrary Loan using your NetID and password. If you are requesting a book, then select "Request a Book". If you are requesting a journal article, then select "Request a Photocopy". Be sure to fill out as much of the form as possible. You'll be notified by email when your item is ready to be picked up. If you requested a journal article, it will probably be sent to you electronically as a PDF.
Interlibrary loan can usually obtain a journal article for you very quickly (much faster than for books), sometimes within one day.