LibGuides: U.S. Expansion to 1898: Home

Find an Expert to Help You Use the Library

Celestina Savonius-Wroth is the subject specialist librarian for History, and acting subject specialist for African American Studies.

For more librarians, see the Research Help from an Expert page on this guide.

To find books, begin with the 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.

For more information on finding books, see the Books page on this guide.

To find journal articles for your research in this class, begin with the database America: History and Life:

America: History and Life
The main article database for researching American history. Use to find journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on all periods of North American history. Includes some links to full text. Complements Historical Abstracts. Indexes publications from 1964-present.

For more information on finding journal articles and articles from other kinds of periodicals, see the Periodicals page on this guide.