LibGuides: Building a Bridge Back to Brown: Research Guide: Where to Start

Reference Sources

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History

Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Electronic access to all 350 volumes in 10 subject areas, 1960-present
1960-present; Cambridge Histories Online allows instant access to the renowned texts of the Cambridge Histories series. Subject areas include: American history, regional history, British history, general history, economic history, religious studies, literary studies, political and social theory, language and linguistics, music, theatre studies and performing arts, history of the book, philosophy, history of science, and warfare.
CQ Researcher Plus Archive This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Offers in-depth reports on a single theme or issue from the news each week, 1923-present
1923-present; explores a single "hot" issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from the environment, health, education and science, technology and social issues.
Gale Ebooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides access to encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research
Gale Ebooks is a collection of ebooks that includes encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
An art encyclopedia, including peer-reviewed articles, accompanied by images, bibliographies, and links to additional resources, current
Current; Grove Art Online is the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, updated regularly and covering global art and architecture from prehistory to-present day, Includes peer-reviewed articles contributed by over 7,000 scholars from around the world, accompanied by images, bibliographies, and links to additional resources.
Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides across a variety of subject areas.
Oxford Dictionaries Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Dictionaries covering English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, current.
Current; Oxford Dictionaries Online offers essential language resources never before available online: fully searchable, completely comprehensive bilingual dictionaries, and unique study materials that provide extra help with learning and using an expanding range of languages. Oxford Dictionaries Online includes access to a vast range of materials that offer authoritative support for learners, students, and language users at every level. Other materials include hundreds of downloadable letters, grammar notes, verb tables, cultural information, and more.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes 600,000 words, 3.5 million quotations, and more than 1000 years of English, current.
The OED Online contains the complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition, first published in 1989, together with its 3-volume Additions Series, published in 1993 (volumes 1 and 2) and 1997 (volume 3). The OED is currently being revised, with the aim of producing a completely updated third edition by the year 2010. Draft material from the revision programme will also be published online, representing the latest progress towards the new edition. More revised and new entries will be added to the online Dictionary every quarter.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides access to Grove Music Online, the music encyclopedia, and to the Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Oxford Companion to Music, current.
Current; Oxford Music Online is an integrated music resource on the web. It includes not only the Oxford Dictionary of Music, but also Grove Music Online, Oxford Companion to Music and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search 2 million entries spanning 25 subject areas across Oxford University Press dictionaries, companions, and encyclopedias, current.
Current; the core collection of Oxford Reference Online brings together 100 language and subject dictionaries and reference works published by the Oxford University Press into a single cross-searchable resource. The Premium Collection offers all of the above, plus added functionality and more detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series, to enhance the coverage already provided by the Core Collection.
Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides access to review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, current.
2012-2020; Oxford Handbooks Online: Scholarly Research Reviews brings together the world's leading scholars to write review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate. OHO is a collection of the best Handbooks in 14 subject areas. The series contain in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field. All Handbooks are available online as well as in print, and monthly updates introduce articles in advance of print publication.

Search for Secondary Sources

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to nearly 4,700 journals, including 3,600 peer-reviewed journals
Current; multidisciplinary full text database, designed for the academic community. Includes full text coverage for just under 4,700 journals, including 3,600 peer-reviewed journals.
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes article abstracts and citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, 1954-present
1954-present; article abstracts and citations of reviews and dissertations on the history and culture of the United States and Canada.
BruKnow This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
BruKnow is the Library's platform for searching books, ebooks, databases, articles, multimedia, digital collections, and special collections, current
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
An index to articles, books and dissertations on world history about the 15th century to the-present.
1954-present; article abstracts and citations of books and dissertations on the history of the world from 1450 to the-present. Excludes the U. S. and Canada.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Provides image and full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics and other fields of the humanities and social sciences. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title.

If you are experiencing printing problems from JSTOR while using a Macintosh computer, please download the most recent version of Adobe Reader. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
If you need assistance, please contact the CIS Help Desk or eresources@brown.edu.

New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Brown students, faculty, and staff are eligible for free academic passes to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Activate your passes below:

New York Times -- Academic Pass
Register here for daily access to the New York Times using your Brown email address.
Wall Street Journal -- Academic Pass
Register here for daily access to the Wall Street Journal using your Brown email address.

Current Newspaper Databases

These databases are updated daily and cover current newspapers and news sources from around the world in full text. Coverage will vary but most go back to the 1990s or 1980s. For older issues, please see the Historical Newspapers tabs. You can also search for specific newspapers by title in BruKnow to find additional online news sources.

Access World News Research Collection
A full text news resource of over 7,000+ local, regional, national and international sources. Updated daily, it offers primary source information on today’s issues and events from newspapers, newswires, transcripts, video clips, web only, and blogs.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni is a source for information on U.S. and international companies and executives. Includes print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs; local, regional, national and international newspapers; legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790.
1790-present; Nexis Uni has more than 15,000 news, legal and business sources including:

Print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs
Local, regional, national and international newspapers with deep archives
Extensive legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790
Business information on more than 80 million U.S. and international companies and more than 75 million executives
US Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Major U.S. Newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune; 1980-present.
1980-present; US Major Dailies provides access to the five most respected US national and regional newspapers, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.
US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search recent and archival U.S. national, regional, and local newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites, 1980-present
1980-present; US Newsstream enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring top newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full text format.

Visualization of the African Diaspora

Age of Exploration
Delve into the earliest voyages of Vasco da Gama, the opening of trade with the Spice Islands, the colonisation of the Americas and Australasia, the search for the Northwest and Northeast Passages, and finally the race for the Poles with this robust primary source collection.
Slave Voyages
Contains information on more than 35,000 slave voyages involving the forcible transport of more than 12 million Africans to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Offers researchers, students and the general public a chance to rediscover the reality of one of the largest forced movements of peoples in world history.
Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas (University of Virginia)
The Spread of US Slavery
Interactive map documenting the spread of chattel slavery in the US

African and African American Collections at Brown

Black Nationalists (Hall Hoag Collection)
Printed propaganda from the Black Panthers and 26 other radical Black nationalist groups included in this sub-category as part of the massive Hall Hoag Collection of Extremist and Dissenting Printed Propaganda, documenting political activity by radical groups in the post WWII United States. Includes many issues of the Black Panther newspaper.
Representations of Blackness in Music of the United States (1830-1920)
This collection is a grouping of approximately 1,400 items dating from the 1830s to the 1920s. The contents of the collection depict representations of Black diasporic people and cultures through close to a century of illustrations and musical and lyrical compositions found in sheet music publications. The collection depicts representations of Blackness during an era dominated by the sheet music publishing industry and prior to the recording industry’s eventual domination over the commercial market which began in the 1920s.
Race and America
The Race & in America series amplifies the impact and extends the reach of these penetrating discussions through expanded content and resources presented over thirteen volumes.