Help  ||  Finding Sources  ||  Local History  ||  Microforms  || Databases  || Current News || Portals || Citations

Getting Help

The McHenry Library Reference Desk (459-5171) is staffed Monday-Friday 1pm-5pm.  Special Collections & Archives is open Monday-Friday 10am-noon; 1-4pm.  Use our Ask-A-Librarian Service to IM, chat, email, phone or find a reference librarian. Real- time, chat reference service is provided by reference staff from various academic libraries. UC Santa Cruz librarians will follow up with additional information as warranted.

The library Help pages offer advice on how to find and evaluate sources, distinguish between primary and secondary sources, and locate relevant subject and course guides.

Finding Sources

Cruzcat - Online catalog of the UCSC University Library. This tool contains the holdings of all books, journal titles, media materials, government publications, course reserves and other formats in the UCSC library. It also provides information on the circulation status of these materials.  Cruzcat uses Library of Congress Subject Headings.  LCSH are left-anchored but you can use the advanced search option to identify/browse subject headings that include your search terms, e.g.,

Classic Cruzcat Subject= santa cruz county history allows you to browse all LCSH that your search terms somewhere in the subject heading.

Cruzcat Encore Advanced Search Subject= santa cruz county history returns items that have all of your search terms in the subject fields  Geographic and Political entities can be combined with standardized subdivisions to locate particular types of resources.  Use Sources, Interviews, Personal narratives, Correspondence, Diaries, Manuscripts, Pictorial works, or Description and travel to identify primary source materials.  Form subdivisions, e.g. Directories, Periodicals, Newspapers, can be used to identify contemporary publications.

Santa Cruz County (Calif.) -- History -- Sources   Japanese Americans -- California -- Watsonville -- Personal Narratives    Pajaro River Valley (Calif.) -- Description And Travel    Santa Cruz (Calif.) -- Directories

For best results use the Advanced Search option to combine controlled subject terms with keywords:

Another strategy is to combine terms to locate secondary literature then check the bibliography or references to identify primary resources.  Then use Cruzcat, Melvyl (the UC catalog), UC e-Links, Google Scholar or Worldcat to locate those resources.

Local and Regional History Primary Sources

The UC Berkeley Library Guide to Finding Historical Primary Sources can be used to identify similar materials at UCSC.

Primary sources were either created during the time period being studied or were created at a later date by a participant in the events being studied. They reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer.  The original manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, photos, organizational records, newspapers.., are usual held in archives and special library collections with controlled access.  However many of these documents have been reproduced in printed compilations, microfilm, and digital archives.  Archive finding aids, microfilm indexes, catalogs and academic databases will help you locate more accessible versions of primary documents.

The Online Archive of California (OAC) provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.  The actual content of the archive will normally not be digitized and will be restricted to use within the holding library

The Regional History Project has been documenting the history of the Central Coast of California and the institutional history of UC Santa Cruz since 1963. This web site includes the complete catalog of our collection, oral history resources, and links to other oral history sites on the Internet.  See also Santa Cruz History Interviews and Agricultural History of Santa Cruz County.

Calisphere is the University of California's free public gateway to a world of primary sources. More than 200,000 digitized items — including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts — reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history. Calisphere's content has been selected from the libraries and museums of the UC campuses, and from a variety of cultural heritage organizations across California.

19th Century U.S Newspapers offers full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S.

Ancestry Library Edition  contains coverage of the U.S. and the U.K., including census, vital, church, court, and immigration records, as well as record collections from Canada and other areas.

California Digital Newspaper Collection contains 55,935 issues comprising 494,455 pages and 5,658,224 articles.  Dates vary ~ 1849-1920.

Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 is a full-text database of English and Spanish language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Historical Newspapers (Proquest) indexes articles and provides full-text from Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1987), Los Angeles Times (1881-1987), New York Times (1851-2007), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal (1889-1993), and Washington Post (1877-1994).

Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

See also: Databases and Research Tools, Format = Primary Sources and Archives

Local History: Microforms

Microform Collections.  Microforms provide back issues of many newspapers. The collection also includes books, maps, United States documents and city directories. Individual titles and archives are cataloged in Cruzcat.  Print Guides are located in a bookshelf at the end of the cabinets.  Some examples:

F856 .C121  California county and regional histories. 1981. New Heaven, Conn: Research Publications Inc.  Individual titles duplicated in this set have been digitized and can be viewed/searched as Hathi Trust and Internet Archive e-books.

F868.S3 R33  F.A. Hihn Company, and University of California, Santa Cruz. 1985. Record books of the F.A. Hihn Co., Santa Cruz, Ca. Palo Alto, Calif: Bay Microfilms Inc.

F868.S3 O344  Stevens, Stanley D. 1986. Official deeds, Santa Cruz County, Cal. July 16, 1850 to Jan. 29, 1853 Vol. 1. Palo Alto, Calif: Bay Microfilms Inc.

JS451.C29S337  Santa Cruz County (Calif.). 1986. Great register of voters, 1900-1944. Santa Cruz County. Riverside, CA: Custom Microfilm Systems.

F869.O2 C57  City directories of the United States, 1902-1935. Woodbridge, Conn: Research Publications.  See also print editions of Polk's Directories.

G1529.W3 S35  Sanborn Map Company. 1970. Insurance maps of Watsonville, Capitola and Soquel, California. California: s.n. &  G1529.S69S2  Sanborn Map Company. 1928. Insurance maps of Santa Cruz, California. New York : Sanborn Map Co.  UCSC has started to digitize the original glass slides.  Digital Sample.

AI3.I454  University of California, Santa Cruz. 1984. Index cards for the Santa Cruz Times, Aptos Voice. Palo Alto, Calif: Bay Microfilm Inc., Library Microfilms Div.

Santa Cruz Surf and Superior California Farmer. June 1883-May 1919. Santa Cruz, Calif: A.A. Taylor. [newspapers filed by title]

Santa Cruz Sentinel. 1856-  . Santa Cruz, Calif. : Santa Cruz Sentinel Publishers Co. [newspapers filed by title]

Register-Pajaronian. 1868-  . Watsonville, Calif: Watsonville Newspapers. [newspapers filed by title]

Indexing and Abstracting Databases

A&I databases provide structured searching for some source material but are directed primarily to academic production, the secondary literature.  Secondary sources will help you to interpret, assign value to, conjecture upon, and draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. These are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but may include documentaries, agency reports or working papers.  You should also use the articles found via the databases to identify referenced source material you may have missed in source searches

America: History and Life (AHL)  Historical coverage of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. Contains citations and abstracts for articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations.  Covers: Articles written 1964 – present.

Other databases at this EBSCOHost site include Historical Abstracts, BSC, Left Index, GreenFILE, and ASC.   You can opt to search across all of the Ebsco databases or selected databases.  From any EBSCOhost database, click on the Choose Database link next to the database name.

From the pop-up screen, select the databases you want to include in your cross-search.

PAIS International & Archive  The Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) contains citations and short abstracts for journal articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, and statistical directories. Subjects include government, international relations, legislation, political science, statistics, and related areas. Covers: 1937 - present,

Other databases at this CSA Illumina site include EconLit, EIS, Sociological Abstracts and WPSA.  You can opt to search across all of the CSA databases, all databases within a discipline or selected databases.  From any CSA database, use the Change option to select cross-search options.

Full-text, Citation, and Multi-journal sites.  These resources allow you to search for words within the full-text of articles or citations but do not provide index terms nor directed field searching.  It is therefore easy to get lost in too many irrelevant results.  Use with caution after you have developed appropriate search terms in searching the Catalog and A&I databases.

JSTOR. Full-text academic journals from Volume1:1 (current 2-5 years embargoed).  You can improve your chances of locating appropriate references searching within a subject collection:  American Studies (116 titles), History (316 titles), Political Science (148 titles), Public Policy & Administration (37 titles), Sociology (122 titles) or Latin American Studies (53 titles).

SAGE Full-Text Collections.  From the Advanced Search Page, choose "Select from a list of disciplines" (Social Sciences & Humanities) or "Select from a complete list of journals".  You can also search by subject collections: e.g., Urban Studies & Planning; Political Science; Communication Studies.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.  Note UC e-Link compatible.

Current News Sources

Access World News: California offers full-text access to local, state, and regional papers.  Start dates vary, ~1997+.

Ethnic NewsWatch from Proquest  Full-text newspaper and journal articles focusing on news, culture and history from the ethnic, minority and native press. Available in English or Spanish.  Most content 1990-, some content 1956-.

Proquest Newspapers (Current) Los Angeles Times, New York Times (includes book review and magazine sections), and the Wall Street Journal complete full-text in PDF.

Newspaper source (Ebscohost) Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 (U.S.) & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 389 regional (U.S.) newspapers.

Academic Portals

A portal presents information from diverse sources and formats in a unified way. 

ProQuest Congressional contains bill tracking services, congressional publications, congressional committee reports and testimony, and political news.  Congressional hearings contain the full text of testimony to Congress from public figures, community organizers and experts on a broad variety of topics.  Select "Congressional Publications" > "Advanced Search" > "Hearings (1824-present)".

The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960 to 1974 documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America. Includes 70,000 pages of letters, diaries, and oral histories; more than 30,000 pages of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare audio and video materials.

Everyday Life and Women in America presents thousands of images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000  Nine hundred documents relating to the role of women in movements throughout American history.

GREENR (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources)  is an online resource that offers authoritative content on the development of emerging green technologies and discusses issues on the environment, sustainability and more.

Citation Apps and Linking Resources

• Zotero Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. Quick Start Guide and Screencast tutorials.
• Endnote Web login, web-based bibliographic software.
• LibX UCSC a Firefox extension that provides direct access to UCSC Library resources.
• Find e-Journals UC-eLinks.
• UC-eLinks Citation Linker locate text from a citation.

Help  ||  Finding Sources  ||  Local History  ||  Microforms  || Databases || News  || Portals  ||  Citation Apps

Contact Martha Ramirez (mram at ucsc.edu)