ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 8 2 /C & R L N ew s A m erican h isto ry resources on the Internet By Stanley D. N ash, M iles Y oshim ura, and W illiam V incenti America’s past fin d s a home in cyberspace T h e In te rn e t in clu d es a rich variety of resources in American history for librar­ ians, students, and historians, including access to full-text docum ents, the ability to discover a rich variety of online electronic conferences (list- servs), to connect to nearly any electronic li­ brary catalog in the world, and to access the emerging num ber o f archival and manuscript catalog sites. Listservs • The H-NET Gopher. The most useful list­ servs dealing with American history are those associated with H-NET, an organization affili­ ated with the American Historical Association, w hich coordinates a large num ber of history listservs. It maintains a gopher that offers ac­ cess to book reviews, listserv nam es and sub­ scription information, conference an n o u n ce­ ments, grant opportunities, and a variety of docum ents related to H-NET activities. Access-. g o p h er://h -n e t. m su. e d u /1. • H-NET Listserv G ophers. Further infor­ mation o n H-NET listservs may be obtained by accessing their individual gophers. The follow­ ing URL will provide connections to over 40 history listserv gophers. Access: g o p h er://h - n e t. m su. e d u /11/lists. • O ther listservs. For other lists o f his­ torical discussion groups and subscription in­ formation, connect to either 1) the Directory of E lectro n ic C o n feren ces: access-, g o p h e r :/ / g o p h e r.u sask .ca/0 0 /C o m p u tin g /In tern et% 2 0 In fo rm a tio n /D ire c to ry % 2 0 o f% 2 0 S c h o la rly %20Electronic%20Conferences/History; or 2) Info Magnet: access-, http://w w w .clark.net/pub/ listserv/lshist 1. htm l. Historical o rgan izatio n ho m epages a n d gophers These sites are similar to newsletters and are a good way to k eep u p with the calendar and general activities o f a given organization. • Am erican Antiquarian Society. Access: g opher://m ark.m w a.o rg /1 . • Organization o f Am erican Historians. A ccess: h t t p : / / w w w . i n d i a n a . e d u / ~ o a h / index.html. • C lio m etric S o c ie ty ( e c o n o m ic h is ­ tory). Access: http ://cs.m u o h io .ed u /. Electronic lib ra ry catalogs • HYTELNET. Access to the electronic li­ brary catalogs of most universities is readily available through the software program known as HYTELNET. Access: http://galaxy.einet.net/ hytelnet/START.TXT.html. • C hicago Center fo r R esearch Librar­ ies (CRL). For those affiliated with CRL, which houses a treasure trove of difficult-to-obtain his­ torical materials, connecting to its online cata­ log offers historians and librarians the ability to discover an up-to-date listing of its holdings. Access: telnet://128.135.73.2 / (note: logon as guest). Special collections an d arch ives holdings There are an increasing num ber of archives and Stanley D. Nash is A m erican a n d British history selector a t Rutgers University, e-mail: snash@gandalf.rutgers.edu; Miles Yoshim ura is political science a n d economics selector a t Rutgers, e-mail: yoshimur@ gandalf.rutgers.edu; William Vincenti is a reference librarian a t Rutgers, e-mail: wgv@rci.rutgers.edu gopher://h-net gopher://h- http://www.clark.net/pub/ gopher://mark.mwa.org/1 http://www.indiana.edu/~oah/ http://cs.muohio.edu/ http://galaxy.einet.net/ mailto:snash@gandalf.rutgers.edu mailto:yoshimur@gandalf.rutgers.edu mailto:wgv@rci.rutgers.edu F eb ru a ry 1 9 9 6 / 8 3 repositories that offer electronic access to their holdings and the full text of many finding aids. • J o h n s H op kins U niversity. This site of­ fers connections to some 40 special collections and archives. Access: gopher://m usicbox.m se. jhu.edu/. • National Archives (NA). This site selves both as a resource for the NA’s extensive archi­ val holdings, as well as a gateway to a num ber o f o th e r arc h iv al sites. A ccess: g o p h e r :/ / gopher.nara.gov. • R epositories o f Primary Sources (U ni­ v ersity o f Idaho). Offers a myriad o f connec­ tions to archives and special collections through­ out the globe. Access: http://w w w .uidaho.edu/ special-collections/Other.Repositories.html. Full-text access to historical documents A growing and potentially useful area em erg­ ing on the Internet is that o f full-text docum ents (i.e., official docum ents, such as treaties, acts etc.). The following sites are currently among the best. • D o c u m e n ts fro m th e U n iv ersity o f K ansas. At this point this connection offers the fullest and best-organized list o f U.S. historical docum ents available via Internet, offering 100+ docum ents dating from the seventeenth cen­ tury to 1993. Access, http://history.cc.ukans.edu/ carrie/docs/docs_us. htm l. • D o cu m e n ts fro m th e U n iv ersity o f G ronin gen . This site is especially strong in colonial and revolutionary w ar docum ents, in­ cluding such fairly obscure docum ents as the first, second, and third Virginia colonial char­ ters. Access: h ttp ://w w w .let.ru g .n l/~ w ellin g / usa/othertexts.htm l. • Treaties via C orn ell U niversity. Cov­ ering predominantly 1945 on, this site includes such items as the Nuclear Test Ban treaty of 1963 an d the recent NAFTA treaty. Access: go­ p h e r:// g o p h er. law. Cornell. e d u /11/foreign. • Treaties fro m W iretap. This com mer­ cially ow ned free service offers many types of text (see also below u n d er General Text Ar­ chives). Using the following URL will retrieve a m enu that includes a large num ber o f treaty texts from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. Among these are all the Geneva Conventions and a good num ber o f League of Nations agree­ ments. Access: gopher://w iretap.spies.C O M /ll/ Gov/Treaties. • Inaugural A ddresses o f U nited States P residents. Via Project Bartleby at Columbia University you may access the full text o f inau­ gural addresses from Washington through Bush. Access: g o p h er://g o p h er.c c.Columbia.edu:71/ 11/m iscellaneous/cubooks/inaug. • P resid en tia l A ddresses. This connec­ tion includes access to annual State of the Union messages from 1789 through 1836. Access: http: //g r id . let. r u g .n l/~ w e llin g / u s a / p r e s id e n t s / addresses.html. Full-text access to im prints on va rio u s subjects There are a num ber of sites w hich feature ac­ cess to texts that concentrate on a subject or person. The following are particularly notew or­ thy archives. • A m erican Civil War H om e Page. This site offers a spectacular and well-organized set of links to diaries, letters, battle descriptions, timelines, bibliographies, military rosters, maps, and graphics related to the Civil War. Access: h t t p : / / c o b w e b . u t c c . u t k . e d u / ~ h o e m a n n / warweb.html. • U.S. Civil War Center. Various links to other Internet Civil War sites and books, ph o ­ tographs, bibliographies, and several Civil War new spapers from Louisiana State University. Access: http://w w w .cw c.lsu.edu/civlink.htm . • M ilitary H isto r y R eso u rc es v ia th e U niversity o f Kansas. Offers primary sources, articles, some monographs, graphics, bibliog­ raphies, book reviews, and links with other sites, covering wars in all periods o f American his­ tory. Access: http://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu/his- tory/m ilhst/m_index.html. • N ative A m erican s. The University of Kansas also offers connections to historical texts dealing with Native Americans, including “Fa­ mous D ocuments,” “Famous Q uotes,” and the “G re a t C h ie fs .” Access: h t t p : / / k u h t t p .c c . ukans.edu/~ m arc/natlit/natlit. htm l. • A n t i- I m p e r ia lis m in t h e U .S .A ., 189 8 -1 9 3 5 . This Web page includes access to works by John Dewey, Mark Twain, and the A n ti- Im p e r ia lis t L e a g u e . A ccess: h t t p : / / web.syr.edu/~fjzwick/ail98-35.html. • N ew Y ork City History: Lower East Side. Includes access to works by turn-of-the- century (ca. 1900) observers, including Jacob Riis and William D ean Howells. Access: h ttp :// 1 4 0 .1 9 0 .1 2 8 .1 9 0 : 8 0 /S M C /D e p t/h i s to r y / Contents.html. • From R evolution to R econstruction. An HTML Hypertext survey o f American his­ tory w hich contains Hypertext links to appro­ gopher://musicbox.mse http://www.uidaho.edu/ http://history.cc.ukans.edu/ http://www.let.rug.nl/~welling/ gopher://wiretap.spies.COM/ll/ gopher://gopher.cc.Columbia.edu:71/ http://cobweb.utcc.utk.edu/~hoemann/ http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/civlink.htm http://ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu/his- http://kuhttp.cc 8 4 /C & R L N ew s p riate historical docum ents. Access: h ttp :// grid.let.rug.nl/~welling/usa/revolution.html. • M arx-Engels Full-Text Library. This site already contains some 38 works, including Capital and the Com m unist Manifesto. Access: g o p h er://csf.co lo rad o .ed u /ll/p sn /M arx . Full-text access to im prints through g en eral text archives • M od em E nglish C ollection. From the University o f Virginia, this enorm ous list o f p re­ dominantly literary texts also includes connec­ tions to selected writings o f historical figures such as Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Benjam in Franklin, T hom as Jefferson, an d Lyndon Johnson. Information is provided on the scanning and the edition used. Beware, if the text has an asterisk it is not accessible to users outside o f the university. Access-, h ttp :// etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng.browse.html. • T exts From Virginia Tech. Mostly lit­ erary connections; however, the historical works of famous figures are fairly numerous. Included are w orks by Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau and Thomas Je fferso n . Access: g o p h e r ://g o p h e r .v t.e d u : 10010/10/33. • H istory C o n n ectio n s via th e English Server fro m C am egie-M ellon. If you click on the w ords “Up to the English Server,” you can access a variety of other texts under cat­ egories such as philosophy, w hich in fact are often historical. Access: h ttp://english-w w w . hss.cmu.edu/History.html. • E le c tr o n ic B o o k s fro m W iretap. A commercial service offering free access to a siz­ able num ber of books and historical documents. The first address listed below will offer access to mostly literary works and a few useful his­ tory texts; the second URL connects you to a menu o f choices w hich includes “Vietnam Era D ocuments” and the “U2 Shootdown Incident of 1960.” Access: gopher://w iretap.spies.com / 11/Books an d g o p h er://w iretap .sp ies.co m /ll/ Gov/US-History. • OBI: O n lin e B ook Initiative. Provided by the World Online Service, free o f charge, this connection makes available texts ranging from works o f Booker T. Washington to docu­ ments related to D esert Storm. Access: h ttp :// ftp.std.com:80/obi/. • P ro jec t G u te n b er g . This am b itio u s project aims at creating an electronic library o f thousands of public domain literary texts, and includes a num ber o f useful American his­ torical texts such as The Autobiography o f Ben F ra n k lin . Access: g o p h e r : / / f i r . c i c . n e t / l l / Gutenberg. In d exes an d guides to historical texts a v a ila b le on the Internet Full-text historical m onographs are available from a num ber o f sites. The following sites are excellent guides for discovering text sources on the Internet: • ALEX: A Catalog o f Electronic Texts o n th e Internet. An attempt to locate, index, and permit connections to text material on the Internet. Access: g o p h er://rsl.o x .ac .u k /ll/lib - c o r n /h u n te r/B ro w s e % 2 0 A le x /B ro w se % 2 0 by% 20Subject/Brow se% 20by% 20Subject% 3 a%20History. • U niversity o f Kansas: The Virtual Li­ brary in H istory. This site is probably the largest of the growing num ber of Web sites offering connections to historical sources on the Internet. Access: http://history.cc.ukans.edu/ history/index, html. • History Computerization Project. Fea­ tures annotated listings and connections to a huge num ber of historical sites. Access: h ttp :// w w w.history.la.ca.us/history. • T e n n e s se e Tech. More focused than most lists of history connections, especially w h en seek in g text files. Access: g o p h e r :// g o p h e r , t n t e c h . e d u / 11 l g o p h e r _ r o o t % 3 a % 5bcampus. as. hist. edocs%5d. • Y ahoo. Provides both updated Internet connections to historical sources and connec­ tions to several sites that have a strong reputa­ tion for listing or indexing historical connec­ tions. Access: h ttp ://w w w .y a h o o .c o m /te x t/ Social_Science/History/American_History/. • Other u sefu l h isto ry g o p h e r sites and h o m ep a g es. The following sites offer many leads to text sources in American history: Rice University: go p h er://ricein fo .rice.ed u /ll/S u b - ject/History; North Carolina State University: h ttp ://w w w .lib .n c s u .e d u /d is c ip lin e s /0 2 5 - History.html; University of Michigan: gopher:/ /u n a.h h .lib .u m ich .ed u /1 1/hum anities/history; U n iv e rsity o f W a te rlo o : h ttp : / / w w w . l i b . uwaterloo.ca/discipline/history. Access to im ages an d sound U sing W eb b ro w s e rs, su c h as M osaic o r Netscape, you may access a growing num ber of sites w hich transmit images and sound. The following sites are particularly good examples. (History cont. on p age 96 ) gopher://csf.colorado.edu/ll/psn/Marx gopher://gopher.vt.edu http://english-www gopher://wiretap.spies.com/ gopher://wiretap.spies.com/ll/ gopher://fir.cic.net/ll/ gopher://rsl.ox.ac.uk/ll/lib- http://history.cc.ukans.edu/ http://www.history.la.ca.us/history http://www.yahoo.com/text/ gopher://riceinfo.rice.edu/ll/Sub- http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/disciplines/025- http://www.lib F eb ru a ry 1 9 9 6 / 8 5 9 6 /C & R L N ew s Photo credit : Gerald Holmes An African A m erican H istory M onth d isp lay at K ent State U n iversity. dating to change o n a day-to-day basis. From he incom ing freshm en to post-doctoral stu­ dents, African Americans should not be over­ whelmed with the vast am ount o f information that is available to them w hen enrolling at a new university or college. Librarians should b e eager to help these new students becom e comfortable using the library and its resources to support their entire academic career, and they should provide a strong foundation to prepare students for the future. African Ameri­ can students should not leave the academic environm ent without being library literate. To prepare for lifelong learning requires that stu­ dents continue to acquire new skills, pursue career opportunities, enhance their potential for career advancement, an d invest time to de­ velop library research skills. Notes 1. Alfred Young, “The Historical Origin and Significance of National Afro-American History Month O bservance,” Negro History Bulletin 43 ( 1980): 6–8 . 2. Charles H. Wesley and Thelma D. Perry, introduction to Carter G. W oodson, The Mis- education o f the Negro (1933; reprint, Wash­ ington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1969). 3. Levirn Hill, “Why We Need More Black Librarians,” ABBWA Journal 4 (1992): 29–30. 4. For information on the kits contact Associ­ ated Publishers at (202) 265-1441. ■ (History c o n t.fr o m p age 84) • Civil War Photographs: From th e Li­ brary o f C ongress. A selection of important photo g rap h s. Access: h ttp ://lcw eb 2 .lo c.g o v / cw phome.html. • Rare M aps fr o m th e U n iv e r s ity o f Georgia. Colonial, Revolutionary, nineteenth- century, and many other m aps housed at the Special Collections o f the University o f Geor­ gia are m ade available to the public. Access: h ttp ://scarlett.lib s.u g a.ed u /d arch iv e/h arg rett/ m aps/m aps.htm l. • A m erican M em ory Project: Library o f C ongress. This remarkable project makes avail­ able docum ents, sp eech es an d other sound recordings, photographs, and, most impressive, som e actual scanned manuscripts. Access: http: //lcw eb2.1oc.gov/amhome.html. • A m erican P ro h ib itio n Project. Ohio State University’s history hom epage provides access to photographs and primary text relat­ ing to the history o f prohibition from its ante­ cedents in the 1870s through the 1920s. Access: h ttp ://w w w .c o h u m s.o h io -s ta te .e d u /h is to ry / projects/prohibition/default.htm . Electronic jo u rn als Thus far, electronic journals are not a rich source of information for historians o f the U.S. For keeping u p with the advent o f such journals connect to CICnet. Access: gopher://gopher.cic. net: 2000/11/e-serials/archive. Or try the Elec­ tronic Journals gopher. Access: g o p h er://p eg . cw is.uci.edu:7000/l1/goρher. w elcom e/peg/ej. Bibliographies An area that promises to b e very valuable is that o f bibliographies. So far the listservs have been the best source of small reading lists, of­ fered by know ledgeable historians; however, a few lengthy searchable bibliographies are available. The best exam ple is the one on Mar­ tin Luther King Jr., from Stanford University, consisting of thousands of sources. Access: tel- net://forsythetn.stanford.edu/. Note: W hen you m ake the connection type socrates for account, then type yes, and then type select mlk. Please try our W eb page for leads to many other sources. Access: http://w w w .rutgers.edu/ rulib/artshum/amhist.html. ■ http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/ http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/ gopher://gopher.cic gopher://peg http://www.rutgers.edu/