Searching Historical Abstracts
(via EBSCOhost)
Historical Abstracts is available via the EBSCOhost database platform which provides:
Comprehensive coverage of literature and abstracts in world history (15th Century onwards) from a variety of
sources including historical journals, books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.
Access
Click on the Databases tab in the Library Catalogue
Under Social Sciences select History. This provides access to a list of relevant databases for your subject
area
In this case, select History Key Databases > Historical Abstracts
You will need your normal University username and password to access databases on EBSCOhost
Advanced searching
When searching, you can use additional keywords to refine your results using the AND, OR, NOT options
AND will return only results that contain all of your keywords. OR will return all results that contain one
of your keywords. NOT will remove results that contain the specified keywords
For example, this search will return all results that include the word France along with one of the
terms: Protest or Strike
Advanced searching continued
You can also specify where EBSCOHost looks for your keywords using the drop
down menu on the right hand side.
Choosing TI Title will return more relevant results by only looking for your terms in
the theses, article or report heading. You may also find the AU Author field useful if you already know the
author of your text
Top tip
Under Search Options you can choose to limit your search to a historical period or a specific time
frame.
For example, if I were looking specifically for the May 1968 French Protest, it may help to narrow the date
range for this search to 1900-1980.
Refining searches
Use the blue menu bar to sort your results by ascending or descending publication date, relevance or
author.
You can also use the left hand column to narrow your search. There are several categories by which you
can refine your results, including Source Types, Subject and Publication Date.
Searching across multiple databases
To broaden the search to a wider range of databases select Choose databases from
#above the search boxes
Use the tick boxes in the new window to select or deselect the databases you would like to search for your
terms. You may find America: History and Life useful
Handling results
The easiest way to handle the results is to move them into a folder. Select Add to Folder for each of the
results you wish to handle; the selected results will be added to your folder in the in the right hand column
Select folder view to open your folder. You can now use the options on the right hand side to handle your
results
Email allows you to send the results to yourself or your colleagues. You can specify a reference style for
the citations
Export allows you to send the results to reference handling software
Top tip
To export to EndNote Web from EBSCOHost select Direct Export to EndNote Web
In case the export does not work as expected, untick the box which says Remove these items from
folder after saving. This ensures that your results will remain in your folder should you wish to do
anything else with them
Accessing texts
Your results will be displayed with your keywords highlighted
Some results will display a link to the full text or a link to a PDF of the article
Others will provide a WebBridge link, which will connect you with sources where you can find a full text
If there is no link via WebBridge, try searching the Warwick Library Catalogue.