America: History and Life

Description

America: History and Life (AHL) is an annotated index to scholarly material on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Coverage includes citations from over 2,000 journals published worldwide since 1964, as well as book/media reviews, dissertations, and collections of essays (books); select journals are indexed back to 1954. Full-text of some articles is available online. The companion index, Historical Abstracts, covers articles published since 1955 for research concerning non-United States or Canadian topics;the United States or Canada may be covered in relationship to other countries.

BASIC SEARCH

For basic Keyword searching, enter a word or phrase to retrieve entries that contain all of the words. Combine keywords with specific terms in assigned fields by selectng specific search fields from the list of choices.

Use quotation marks around a phrase to search for words appearing only in that order.

Example: "lake superior"     - - - -     Finds citations that contain the phrase LAKE SUPERIOR

Combine terms using AND, OR, or NOT; (the default is automatic AND searching).

AND = Example: war and texas     - - - -     Finds citations that contain both WAR and TEXAS
OR = Example: war or texas     - - - -     Finds citations that contain either WAR or TEXAS
NOT = Example: war and not texas     - - - -     Finds citations that contain WAR but not TEXAS

Truncate terms with * to search for various word endings.

Example: histor* searches for history, histories, historical, etc.

Truncate terms by using a ? in place of individual letters within words to search for terms with various spellings.

Example: wom?n searches for woman and women

 

ADVANCED SEARCH

In the Advanced Search for America: History and Life, there are separate search boxes and indexes for subject, author, language, document type, journal name, time period, etc. To search a specific field, type the word(s) in the appropriate search box.

To browse an index, click on the open book icon to the right of the appropriate search box. From the alphabetical list retrieved, the number in parentheses after each term indicates how often it appears in the database. Select terms and variants to add to the search by checking the boxes to the left of each term in the index list. To use the index to seach for specific terms, type the word(s) into the search box and hit the Find Terms button. After terms are selected and marked, click on the Add Checked Terms to Your Search button.

Use the time period browser to search for historical date ranges. Decades are denoted with a D after the date, centuries with an H.

Example: 2000D covers the years 2000-2010; 2000H covers the 21st century

Help is available any time during the search. Click on the Help button on the left side of the screen.

Result List

Short Entry/Full Entry – The default is a short entry display. The short entry provides document type (article, book/media review, dissertation), author, title, and bibliographic citation. The full entry display includes the same information with the abstract (for articles), language, time period, and subject terms. Click on in the lower right-hand side of the record to view the full entry.

Tagging – Mark records to view, print, E-mail, or save to a disk. Check the box next to the word Tagged at the beginning of a record to mark it. To view only those selected entries, click on View Tagged Only beneath any of the bibliographic citations.

Print, E-mail, and Save

To print, E-mail, or save results, select the Export Options button on the left side of the screen.

Print1.Select the entry format (full entries include an abstract, if available).
2.Select All Entries or Tagged Entries.
3.Select ASCII Display to remove extra graphics.
4.Click on the Export Records button, then click on the Display ASCII Output button. The entries will appear reformatted for printing.
5.Select the browser's Print button.

Save1.Select the entry format (full entries include an abstract, if available).
2.Select All Entries or Tagged Entries.
3.Select ASCII Display to remove extra graphics.
4.Click on the Export Records button, then click on the Display ASCII Output button. The entries will appear reformatted for printing.
5.From the browser bar, select File, Save As, select the a:/ drive, and type in a file name.

E-mail1.Select the entry format (full entries include an abstract, if available).
2.Select All Entries or Tagged Entries.
3.Select the Output Type from the list of choices.
4.Enter the E-mail information in the boxes provided.
5.Click on the Send button.

Locating Documents at UWM Libraries

  1. To determine if the UWM Libraries own a specific journal or book cited in the results list or has the full text of the journal available in another online resource, click at the bottom of the citation. (Some entries may not have the link; check the full entry for more information to check PantherCat.)
  2. If the journal is available full text in an online resource, select the database of choice from the options given and follow the instructions to locate the article.
  3. If the journal is not available full text in an online resource, follow the link to the UWM Libraries to check for print holdings. A link to the UWM Libraries catalog here does not indicate that the libraries own any volumes - follow the link to check the catalog for holdings. If the UWM Libraries has this title, display the record and identify call number, holdings information (i.e., does the library own the date/volume needed?), location, and format. "Latest issues" are located in the Current Periodicals Room (Lower Level, West Wing). Issues listed under "Library has" are located in either the stacks or the special location listed under Location or in Notes.
  4. Dissertations included in the database may be requested or purchased through Interlibrary Loan; these may not have the FindIt link in the entry (citation link indicates source of DAI). Book titles not listed in PantherCat may be requested from another library.
  5. If a title does not appear in the libraries' catalog nor is available full text online, request journal articles through Interlibrary Loan and the books/dissertations through UW System borrowing, InfoPass, or Interlibrary Loan. Inquire at the RIS Information Desk for assistance.

E-mail Alert Service

Set up an E-mail alert service to be notified of new, pertinent, entries from America: History and Life.
  1. Set up a search profile and receive e-mails when items matching the profile are added. Up to 10 different alerts are available.
  2. To set up a profile, click on [ view ], then new profile, next to Personal Profile at the bottom of the Basic Search screen.
  3. Follow the instructions, including typing in a username (must be unique to the database). Insert your name, e-mail address, and password. Additional information or other available alert services are listed in the RIS Library Guide Email Alert Services.

CLIO Notes

Access CLIO Notes from the main search page of America: History and Life. Click on to browse chronologies and concise summaries of significant events and themes in American history. A search box appears at the end of each summary which provides suggested search strategies and allows users to move directly from CLIO Notes to the America: History and Life database.

llb/sc/jd: 05/31/2006

UWM Libraries Home * PantherCat

UWM Libraries Staff
page contact: Linda Brothen