Experience of Immigrant Groups in the United States: Subject Guide
1. Think about and develop a SEARCH STRATEGY!
2. Find Background Information...Use Reference Resources
- Samples:
- American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of A Nation: v1-2 (Reference E184 .A1 A63448 1997)
- Atlas of Ethnic Diversity in Wisconsin (Reference Collection: GN 560 .U6 Z36 1998)
- Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America: v1-2 (Reference E184 .A1 G14 1995)
- Immigration Nation: United States Regulation of Immigration, 1798-1991 (Government Documents J 21.1: IM 6/14)
- State Data Atlas: The State Atlas of Political and Cultural Diversity (Reference Collection: G1201 .E25 L5 1997)
- We the People: An Atlas of America's Ethnic Diversity (Atlas Collection (map stand): G1201.E1 A4 1988)
- Wisconsin's Past and Present: A Historical Atlas (Atlas Collection: F 581 .W57 1998)
- Statistics link by the Immigration and Naturalization Service(mostly current stats)
- Historical Immigration Statistics (1850-1990) by the US Census Bureau
3. Find Books & Videos
- JDH Library Catalog
- Use the Guided Keyword search to search for the country or homeland of your group AND emigration.
- Use the Author-Title-Subject search to search for subject headings such as: German Americans, Czech Americans, Irish Americans, etc.
- Use the Author-Title-Subject search to search for immigration or immigrants...your group may be covered within books about immigration and/or immigrants in general.
- Browse JDH Library's book and video collections. The E184 call numbers are a good starting place.
- Samples:
- American stories [video set] (Video collection, second floor: E741 .A74 1999)
- Ethnic Americans : a history of immigration and assimilation (Second floor books: E184.A1 D48)
- Ethnic families in America : patterns and variations (Second floor books: E184.A1 E78)
- We came to America : an anthology (Second floor books: E184.A1 C35)
- WorldCat
- Search as above and use the Inter-Library Loan (ILL) button to get those materials not in JDH Library.
- Use Interlibrary Loan if we don't have the book(s) you need.
4. Identify and Find Journal Articles
- Indexes & Bibliographies:
- Use Bibliographies and Sources Cited Lists from the reference resources and books that you have gathered.
- Search appropriate periodical indexes:
- Academic Search (general index)
- Expanded Academic ASAP
- Ethnic News Watch
- See also: indexes listed under "Multicultural & Women."
- Finding Journal Articles Cited But Not Provided in the Indexes
- Use the Author-Title-Subject search in the Catalog to see if JDH Library owns the journal the article is in...search for journal title, not article title.
- Check the Where is the Journal I Need? list to see if another index has the journal available online and in fulltext.
- Use Interlibrary Loan if we don't have the journal(s) you need.
5. Web Sites of Interest
- Census Bureau
- Use the "Subjects A to Z" link to look up immigration. You will find statistics here.
- Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
- American Memory Project of the Library of Congress
- Don't forget to evaluate the web sites you find from these starting points!
6. For More Information
- Ask the Reference Librarians for help and assistance. It is what we are here for!
- Ask your Professor for suggestions and pointers.
Designed and Created by Jeneen LaSee-Willemssen
Last updated: April 2, 2001
Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.