This guide provides a broad overview of the types of resources you might use while working on your assignment for this class. Because the University of Illinois Library has such a large collection (24 million items in a wide variety of formats, including 14 million books, 9 million microforms, 120,000 periodicals, and 650,000 maps), beginning your research can sometimes be daunting. This guide will help you find the resources you need in a large, research library.

The Library has many subject specialists available to assist you in your research, so if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact us:

History
Celestina Savonius-Wroth
(217) 300-3520 | cswroth@illinois.edu
https://www.library.illinois.edu/hpnl/

City Planning and Urban Studies
Michael Dickinson
(217) 300-4492 | mad4@illinois.edu
http://www.library.illinois.edu/funkaces/

Maps
Jenny Johnson
(217) 333-3855 | jmj@illinois.edu
http://www.library.illinois.edu/max/

Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
Krista Gray
(217) 333-1777 | graykr@illinois.edu
http://www.library.illinois.edu/ihx/

Guide created by Mary Stuart and Geoffrey Ross, January 15, 2008.

Image credit: "Map of Shanghai" in the British Library (Reference 14187), from the digital collection China: Trade, Politics, and Culture, 1793-1980.

Edited by Jerilyn Tinio, October 2, 2020.

Updated, February 2025 by Sofia Caruso (Illinois History and Lincoln Collections), Sammi Merritt (University Archives), and Geoffrey Ross.