LibGuides: American and Canadian Studies: Websites

Recommended websites

Library of Congress Digital Collections (formerly American Memory)

Library of Congress hosted gateway to digitised primary resources on American history – includes sound and film resources as well as text. Contains material formerly in American Memory https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Documenting the American South

Online collection of sources relating to the history of the American South from colonial times to early 20th Century.

HarpWeek

A searchable database of selected articles and illustrations from Harper’s Weekly magazine for 1857-1912, as well as themed collections, essays and bibliographies.

British Association for American Studies

The BAAS was founded in 1955 and via their website the latest American Studies publications can be accessed.

Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)

The Cold War International History Project disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War, in particular new findings from previously inaccessible sources in the former Communist world.

Cornell Making of America

The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection comprises a wide range of primary sources in American social history

National Security Archive

Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents ("the world's largest nongovernmental collection" according to the Los Angeles Times), leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.

Organization of American Historians (OAH)

Largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history.

US Census Bureau

Web site of the United States Census Bureau - contains statistical information about all aspects of American life.

AFI Catalog. This abstract and indexing database covers the history of American cinema comprehensively from 1893 to 1975, with full or short records for films from 1976 to present. Every film produced on American soil or by American production companies is indexed from the birth of cinema to the present day. New records are created by the AFI editorial team and added each year. Part of ProQuest's Screen Studies Collection.
FIAF Index to Film Periodicals Plus This link opens in a new window Index of hundreds of academic and popular film journals with access to full text. maintained by The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)
Screen studies (Bloomsbury) Screen Studies is a dynamic digital platform taking users from script to screen and beyond - offering a broad range of content from Bloomsbury and Faber & Faber to support moving-image studies.
Screen Studies Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window A comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed and expansive filmographies. This collection includes the specialist index FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; AFI Catalog and Film Index International.

Black Drama Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
Black Thought and Culture Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts. The ideas of over 1,000 authors present an evolving and complex view of what it is to be black in America.

The ABC of Evaluation

Here is a suggested set of questions to ask yourself when making an assessment of any published source of information, not just websites:

A - Authority

Who authored it, and what are his/her/their credentials? In the case of a book, there may be something in the 'blurb' on the back cover about the author. In academic publications there are often notes about the author(s) and their qualifications and experience which enable them to speak authoritatively about their subject. Are they affiliated to a university or a research institute?

Websites are often created by more than one person, but it is still important to check who the authors are. See if there is an 'About Us' link giving information about the website, or the organisation and people maintaining it. Are there any reliable contact details? What are the stated aims of the organisation?

Does the book or website contain up-to-date references to source materials, particularly to original research or statistics, so that you can check whether the discussion or opinions are based on reliable facts? Is it aimed at a popular audience, or is it more scholarly and reasoned in its approach? What kind of language does it use: is it rhetorical or emotive, and does the author back up his/her/their arguments with appropriate facts and original sources?

B - Bias

Think about the possibility of any bias in the information you have found. Is it possible that the organisation represented by the author or website has a particular standpoint to promote: is it a campaigning or pressure group, a government department, or public information service?

If the source is likely to have a bias, make sure you check any references or links provided, and find some other sources with a contrasting standpoint, preferably from an academic book or journal. It is good practice to use a variety of sources of information so you can compare and contrast different viewpoints on a topic.

C - Currency

Check how up-to-date the information is. A book or a journal will usually have a clear date of publication on its cover or title page. If it doesn't, check the date of the latest item in any bibliography at the end of the book or article.

In the case of a website, try to find the date when it was last updated. In some subjects such as law or economics, the validity of information may change more rapidly than in others, so you will need to be careful. Are any links from it to other sites still active?