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These WSA databases have scholarly research in journal articles and ebooks.

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EBSCO eBooks Academic Collection	Historical Abstracts with Full Text	Academic OneFile	JSTOR	Science Direct

What's a primary source? What's the difference between a primary, secondary and tertiary source? Where can I find primary sources on my topic online? Find answers to these questions in the Primary Sources Guide.  Or search WSA's databases.  See links below for databases that feature primary sources.

For links and descriptions for all WSA databases with Primary Sources, go to this page of the A-Z list:  

A-Z Databases: Primary Sources

Or see below for primary source databases related to specific subjects or resource types:

General Resources for Research in All Subject Areas

Human Rights

Images, Videos, and Audio

Literature

Middle School Research

Special Topics

Gale in Context College - Gale in Context: College provides contextual information on a wide array of subjects. It contains continuously updated reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites.

Gale Power Search - Use this platform to search across all of WSA’s Gale General OneFile, Gale in Context, and Gale eBooks databases. You can access all of the magazines, journals, newspapers and books along with videos, images and podcast content in these databases. It does not search resources in Academic OneFile or Gale Literature.

General OneFile - General OneFile is a large, multidisciplinary database that includes information across every subject area from a variety of publication types. It offers news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: art, business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, and more.

Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com gives you access to the historical newspaper archive of Ancestry.com It contains millions of pages from over 20,800 different American newspapers from the 1700s–2000s.

World Book Advanced - World Book Advanced is a multimedia resource for students in middle school through high school. It has reference articles, eBooks, primary source databases, a dictionary and atlas, interactive maps, and access to current news publications.

Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: A Selection of Primary Sources - Use Black Freedom Struggle in the United States to find primary sources in collections from slavery and the abolitionist movement (1790-1860) to the contemporary era (1976-2000). This website contains approximately 1,600 documents, representing a selection of primary sources available in several ProQuest databases.

Civil Rights and Social Justice - The Civil Rights and Social Justice database brings together a diverse offering of publications covering civil rights in the United States as their legal protections and definitions are expanded to cover more and more Americans. It contains hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on the landmark legislations, CRS (Congressional Research Service) and GAO (General Accounting Office) reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights. Also included is a curated bibliography listing scholarly articles, a varied collection of books on many civil rights topics, and prominent civil rights organizations.

Contemporary Women's Issues (Gale OneFile) - Contemporary Women’s Issues (Gale OneFile) offers comprehensive coverage of issues that influence women’s lives across the globe. The database provides access to current full text and pertinent backfile content covering topics including civil rights, health, education, professional development, and entrepreneurship.

Gender Studies (Gale OneFile) - Gender Studies (Gale OneFile) provides balanced coverage of this significant aspect of culture and society, with access to scholarly journals and magazines. This database covers topics such as gender studies and identity, women's studies, family and marital issues, health aspects, conversion therapy, gay and lesbian rights, homophobia, sexual behavior surveys, and more.

Slavery in American and the World: History, Culture & Law - Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law brings together a multitude of essential legal materials, commentary, pamphlets and books on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Also included are a variety of primary source material, including autobiographies, letters, slave narratives, and more.

Artstor - Artstor is an online database of more than two million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images. With Artstor you can zoom in on and pan images as well as print, save and organize them.

Britannica ImageQuest - Britannica ImageQuest has high quality images that you can use in school projects. It contains detailed company and industry profiles, thousands of company histories and industry essays, and case studies, scholarly journals, and business news.

Learn360 - Learn360 provides access to streaming multimedia covering many subjects, including Engineering & Technology, Health & Guidance, History, Math, Science, Social Studies, Visual & Performing Arts, and World Languages. Its resources include full-length videos, video clips, newsreels, music tracks, sound effects, audio and video speeches, Spanish-language content and more.

Timelines - Timelines covers events spanning the arts, literature, notable people, science and technology, society and culture, sports, and world history and geography. It has historical notes, images, and videos, and users can create their own timelines, or edit and customize existing timelines.

Gale eBooks - Gale eBooks is a searchable online general reference collection. You can search across all the reference books or select a subject area. Included are titles in the arts, biography, business, education, the environment, history, information and publishing, law, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, religion, science and the social sciences.

Gale Literature Criticism - Use Gale Literature Criticism to research covers 20th Century literature and literature from 1400 to 1800. It includes excerpts from criticism of the works of contemporary novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers and scriptwriters, in broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals.

Gale Literature: LitFinder - Gale Literature: LitFinder provides access to literary works and secondary-source materials covering world literature and authors throughout history. It includes more than 132,000 full-text poems and 670,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays.

JSTOR - JSTOR provides access to a wide variety of scholarly journals and monographs in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Use JSTOR to find historical information rather than current articles. It includes thousands of full-text scholarly articles, some dating back to the 1800s, along with open-access eBooks.

The JSTOR Understanding Series - The JSTOR Understanding Series links original works of literature to scholarship. Users pick a text and pick a passage, then instantly see articles and eBook chapters quoting that passage. It includes selected texts in American Literature from the 17th-19th centuries, selected texts in British Literature from 1500-1900, books of the King James Bible (including Apocrypha), and all of William Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.

Britannica ImageQuest - Britannica ImageQuest has high quality images that you can use in school projects. It contains detailed company and industry profiles, thousands of company histories and industry essays, and case studies, scholarly journals, and business news.

Gale eBooks - Gale eBooks is a searchable online general reference collection. You can search across all the reference books or select a subject area. Included are titles in the arts, biography, business, education, the environment, history, information and publishing, law, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, religion, science and the social sciences.

Gale in Context: Middle School - Gale in Context: Middle School covers a range of the most-studied topics in middle school including countries, cultures, government, people, U.S. and world history, geography, literature, and current events. It contains videos, newspapers, magazines, primary sources, reference materials, biographies, and primary sources.

General OneFile - General OneFile is a large, multidisciplinary database that includes information across every subject area from a variety of publication types. It offers news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: art, business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, and more.

Timelines - Timelines covers events spanning the arts, literature, notable people, science and technology, society and culture, sports, and world history and geography. It has historical notes, images, and videos, and users can create their own timelines, or edit and customize existing timelines.

World Book Student - World Book Student is a comprehensive reference site for students in elementary through middle school. It has Behind the Headlines links to the day's top stories, an extensive Biography Center, images, videos, and a built-in dictionary and atlas.

AncestryK12 - AncestryK12 gives you access to all the original and primary documents of Ancestry's U.S. Collection. It contains US Census records, US Indian tribal Census rolls, immigration and travel records, photos, military records, and much more. Note: can only be used on campus.

Churchill Archive - Churchill Archive gives you access to primary source material related to Winston Churchill’s political career - a digital library of modern international history. It contains 800,000 pages of original documents, produced between 1874 and 1965, ranging from Winston S. Churchill’s personal correspondence to his official exchanges with kings, presidents, politicians, and military leaders, along with links to other resources, video and audio content, and biographical and bibliographic databases.

Fold3 - Fold3 gives you access to U.S. military records in Ancestry’s U.S. collection. It contains stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served, covering the Revolutionary War through conflicts in modern times. Note: can only be used on campus.

Global Plants - Global Plants is the world’s largest database of digitized plant specimens. It includes plant type specimens, reference works, and primary sources (diaries, correspondence, illustrations, photographs) and is an essential resource for research in botany, ecology, and conservation studies.

Gun Regulation and Legislation in America -The Gun Regulation and Legislation in America database brings together more than 700 titles dealing with this difficult and important topic, providing a platform for research and promoting civil discourse on the myriad issues related to gun regulation. Included are periodicals, key compiled federal legislative histories, relevant congressional hearings, Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports, Supreme Court briefs, and more. An extensive bibliography and a balanced selection of external resources to further research this subject are also provided.

Use these guides for help with creating citations and bibliographies for research papers.

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Chicago Manual of Style (17th Edition)	MLA Style (9th Edition)	NoodleTools

Quick link to NoodleTools:

These databases have news and/or magazine articles from both popular and trade publications. How can you tell the difference between popular and trade magazines?  How are magazines different than journals? See the charts below the database lists to find out!

Popular magazines:

• Main purpose is to entertain, sell products or promote a viewpoint.
• Appeal to the general public.
• Often have many photos and illustrations, as well as many advertisements.
• Author may or may not have subject expertise. Name and credentials of authors often NOT provided.
• Articles tend to be short –less than 5 pages
• Unlikely to have a bibliography or references list

Trade magazines:

• Main purpose is to update and inform readers on current trends in a specific industry or trade.
• Audience is members of a specific industry or trade or professors and students in that trade or industry.
• May have photos and numerous advertisements, but still assume that readers understand specific jargon of the profession.
• Usually published by an association.
• Authors are professionals working in the specific industry or trade.

Articles may also come from journals or newspapers (print or online).

• Main purpose is often to report results of original search.
• Articles usually have a very specific subject focus.
• May see sections such as abtract, discussion, results, and conclusion.
• Author of the article is an expert or specialist in the field and often their credentials are listed.
• Article is intended for students, scientists, researchers and/or professionals instead of the general public.
• Usually includes a References list at the end

• Main purpose is to provide readers with a brief account of current events locally, nationally or internationally.
• Can be published daily, semiweekly or weekly.
• Articles are usually written by journalists who may or may not have subject expertise.
• Written for the general public, readers don't need any previous subject knowledge.
• Little, if any, information about other sources is provided.

Circulation Information

♦ Library books checked out to students have a checkout period of three weeks, but can be renewed.
♦ Literature books checked out to students are due at the end of the Semester in which they are being used in class.
♦ WSA textbooks that have been checked out to students are due at the end of Semester 2: May 24, 2022.
♦ Online access: place holds and renewals online using your student or staff library user name and password 
♦ Contact the librarian to obtain your library user name and password, or to get help with using WSA's library resources.

Library Policies

♦ Overdues:  No fines charged for overdue materials.
♦ Lost or damaged materials:  Cost for lost or damaged materials is the list price of the item plus a $25.00 handling fee.
♦ Replacement option: Families can replace a missing book with a new copy, in the same format, of the book that's been checked out by their student; a $10.00 fee will be charged to cover the time and materials involved in library processing.