Guide to Historical Abstracts

Description

Subjects covered: all aspects of world history from 1450 to present (excluding the United States and Canada)
Publication types: journal articles, books, dissertations
Coverage: 1955- present
Number of users: 2-6 simultaneously

How to access

Go the MUN Libraries homepage at http://www.library.mun.ca/
If you are at home, click on the Off-campus Login icon at the top right of the home page, and follow the instructions.
Select Article Indexes
Under Indexes by Title, select H
Select Historical Abstracts

Quick tips

Help	top left of screen
Truncation	(asterisk) e.g., emigrat retrieves emigrate, emigrates, emigration, etc.
Wildcards	Pe?ers?n finds Petersen or Peterson or Pederson or Pedersen
Combining terms	use Boolean operators - and, or, not - and parentheses ( ) where necessary. More info
Phrase searching	use quotation marks e.g., "national socialism"
Language	over 50 languages are included. Put english in the Language search box to limit to English.

How to search

Enter your terms in the appropriate search boxes and click the Search bar.

Keyword: Searches the Abstract, Title, Subject Terms and Author. Combine terms using and, or, not (more info); e.g., (briti* or united kingdom) and (economic*)

Author/Editor

To get all variations of an author's name:

Click on the magnifying glass icon at the end of the Author/Editor search box

Type the surname into the into the Find Term box and press ENTER

To add to your search, click on the check box next to the name(s) you want to search, then select Paste Terms at the top of the screen

Time Period

Narrows your search to a specific century or decade. Documents covering more than 5
decades are indexed by century and not individual decades. Documents covering more
than 6 centuries are not indexed for time period.

to search for documents about the 16th century, use 1500H
to search for documents about the 1920s, use 1920D
Use Boolean operators to combine centuries or decades

Example:	Keyword	witch* or occult*
	Author/Editor	\|Jones, A. H.\|
	Time Period	1600H or 1700H

Document Type

To get a list of document types:

Click on the magnifying glass icon at the end of the Document Type search box.

Click in front of the document types(s) you want to search, e.g. Article for journal articles, Collection for edited books, Book for authored books.

Click on Paste Terms

Locating documents in the library

To determine if Memorial Libraries owns a journal:

Click on the Internet link(s) provided in some records. If Memorial Libraries own the journals electronically from the vendor(s) listed in Historical Abstracts, you will be connected to the journals' Internet pages and get access to articles without having to pay.
If there are no Internet links in the record for the article you want, or the link did not give you the full text of the article for free:

Open the Library Catalogue in a new window

Select Browse above the search box

Select Periodical Title from the drop down menu to the left of the search box

Type the title of the journal in the search box and click Search Catalogue

If Memorial owns the journal, the correct title will appear in an alphabetical list. Click on the title to check the full record - make sure that the volume/year of the journal you are looking for is listed

Print/save/email

Before you Print, Save or Email your records, you may tag the records you want by clicking in the box in the upper left corner of the record.

Select Output Options button from the menu on the left side of the screen.
Select Output Type:
ASCII Display - to Print or Save search results
E-mail - To send to one or more Email addresses.

Clio Notes

organized by region, are guides through the history of the world since 1450, with chronologies and brief summaries of significant events and themes in world history.

Logout

When you are finished searching, please select the Exit button on the left of the screen.

For more detailed help, consult with a librarian, or use the Help provided within Historical Abstracts.

For general help on effective database searching, see our Tips for Successful Searching.

August 5, 2008