LibGuides: FYS 100 Race and Law in the United States (Skerrett): Finding Books, Articles, & More

Where to Start Searching

In the beginning of your research, it's helpful to learn just enough about the topic to get a basic overview. If you were just getting started, where would you look for background information on the history of your case and the main issues? Where would you look to find out about events and themes that defined the time period? What names, terms and topics might you use in your search?

Try searching OneSearch is the library catalog, there you can search almost everything in the library at once- books, media, news sources, scholarly journals, and more.
Use Library databases smaller collections of scholarly articles, news sources, images, media and more, which may be organized thematically on different topics.
Google Scholar - a resource for both scholarly and non-scholarly articles. If you are on campus, you will find links to scholarly articles in our databases.

Search Tips:

Brainstorm a few key words or phrases about your topic to help get you started in addition to the name of the case and the people involved.
Use some of the reference sources like encyclopedias or short articles that will give you background and overview information.
Think about the types of resources you are looking for (books, chapters, images scholarly articles, news, etc.), use appropriate filters in Onesearch to find these specific types of materials
If you can't find an article or book you need, check out our service called interlibrary loan - we can request materials from other libraries if we don't have them at UR.

Finding Scholarly Articles

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary resource containing a large number of peer-reviewed journals.
This is good place to start for most topics, including all sciences, religion, law, history, psychology, political science, criminal justice, literature, current events, sociology and communications.
Abstracts and full-text for most journal articles; Varies by title many from 1980s-present
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Archive of scholarly journal literature
Interdisciplinary journal archive of titles in the arts, botany, business, ecology, general science, history, mathematics, and the social sciences. Many journal runs go back to the 19th century and before with subject coverage going back to the medieval period and up to within 3-5 years of current (depending on journal title).; Full-text and full image; Varies by title; current within 3-5 years; Coverage is constantly expanding with the addition of more scholarly journals to the collection. Moving wall publishes to within 3-5 years of most titles that are still in publication.
Political Science Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text articles, papers and books relating to political science
Full-text; Major resource for scholarly research relating to political theory, political behavior, public policy, law, international relations, comparative politics and non-governmental organizations.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
Broadest resource of scholarly research on human cultural, social, environmental and political behaviors
Covers a variety of social sciences including: Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Criminology, Economics, Environmental Studies, Ethics, Family Studies, Gender Studies, Geography, Gerontology, International Relations, Minority Studies, Policy Sciences, Political Science, Psychology, Public Welfare, Social Work, and Sociology.; Full-text, abstracts, and citations; Full-text & abstracts: 1995 - present; Citations: 1907 - present

Historical Newspapers

Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Full-text archives of six national papers of record and five historically Black papers.
Atlanta Daily World, Chicago Defender, Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, The Atlanta Constitution, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times with Index, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post; Full-text; Dates vary with each newspaper.
New York Times Historical Newspaper & Index This link opens in a new window
Full-text (with illustrations and graphics) since 1851, with additional years added as they are digitized.
Full-text; 1851-2019 (full-text); 1851-2019 (index)

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Project of the Library of Congress.

Reference Sources for Background Info

Gale In Context: U.S. History This link opens in a new window
Includes reference works, millions of news and periodical articles, and more than 5,000 rare and vital primary source documents that range from slave journals to presidential papers.

Law Databases

Historic Supreme Court Cases on Race
Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute provides background on historical and contemporary Supreme Court Cases
Oyez
Oyez (pronounced OH-yay)—a free law project from Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (LII), Justia, and Chicago-Kent College of Law—is a multimedia archive devoted to making the Supreme Court of the United States accessible to everyone. It is the most complete and authoritative source for all of the Court’s audio since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. Oyez offers transcript-synchronized and searchable audio, plain-English case summaries, illustrated decision information, and full-text Supreme Court opinions (through Justia).

Making of Modern Law This link opens in a new window
Find primary source documents that explore all aspects of American and British law. Access ACLU papers, records from the U.S. Court of Appeals, legal treatises from the 19th and 20th centuries, trial documents dating back to the 1600s, and U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (Current and Retrospective) This link opens in a new window
Includes international coverage and access to scholarly articles, symposia, jurisdictional surveys, court decisions, legislation, books, book reviews, and more.
Citations, abstracts, and full-text; indexing 1981 - present; select full-text 1994 - present
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of legal history, legal documents, and laws.
Full-text; 20th 21st Century, some 19th Century

Helpful tips

How to Read a US Supreme Court Opinion

Boatwright Memorial Library

FYS 100 Race and Law in the United States (Skerrett): Finding Books, Articles, & More