Research Resources for the History of China
Introduction
The SFCC Library offers a variety of sources useful for researching topics in Chinese history, and this guide is intended to help you identify them and use them effectively. Mostly due to language issues, research may be a bit more challenging in this class than in some others. However, thanks to a variety of online databases as well as cooperative agreements with other regional libraries, it is certainly possible to do both extensive and high quality research.
It is strongly recommended that you start early, as research takes time. It is likely you will need to use interlibrary loan, and if so, please allow extra time to locate and receive books or copies of articles.
It also a good idea to keep a record of where you get information as you go along–nothing is more frustrating than trying to compile a bibliography when you can't remember where you got your information!
George Suttle (533-3807, georges 'at' spokanefalls.edu) is the library's liaison for Social Sciences classes, but never hesitate to ask any librarian for help.
Finding Books & Videos
The SFCC Library shares a joint online catalog with SCC at http://ccs.wash-id.net/ The catalog lists books, videos, magazines, journals, and other items held by one or both of the two libraries.
For books you can check out, you may simply wish to browse the mezzanine book stacks around the Dewey call #951, which is the area for Chinese history.
Since community college libraries do not generally acquire or maintain deep research collections, you may need to seek books at cooperating institutions in the Washington-Idaho Network (WIN) of libraries. Students and faculty can use our online catalog to search for and request items from the libraries at Gonzaga, Whitworth, North Idaho College, the University of Idaho, among others. Items will be delivered via courier, usually within 3-4 days, to the SFCC circulation desk, where they may be checked out.
In addition, consider searching catalogs for libraries physically nearby, such as Eastern Washington University and the Spokane city and county public libraries. Links to these are provided at http://library.spokanefalls.edu/LibraryandCatalogs.stm
Last but not least, Google has been scanning entire books into its vast databases, and it is thus possible to see at least part of several million titles via books.google.com. Depending on copyright status and the owner's wishes, Google may show nothing, snippets of text, multiple pages, or the entire book.
Articles from Journals and Magazines
You will use journal and magazine articles for the bulk of your research. The SFCC Library subscribes to several thousand journals, magazines, and newspapers. However, most of these are available online rather than in print. Even so, they are equivalent to the content found in print sources.
To locate articles on topics for this class, there are several databases we recommend:
- History Reference Center
- In addition to the full text of more than 130 leading history periodicals, the History Reference Center also offers the entire contents of more than 2,300 reference books, encyclopedias and other non-fiction titles; also included are more than 61,100 historical documents, 66,000 biographies of historical figures, more than 110,200 historical photos and maps, and some 80 hours of historical video.
- Academic Search Complete
- Academic Search Complete is a full-text database of more than 5,990 periodicals, mostly peer-reviewed. This database has a more academic orientation than one such as ProQuest, which emphasizes popular magazines and newspapers.
- JSTOR
- JSTOR provides complete academic journal articles for a variety of subject areas; it is intended to offer archival access to older issues, and is not meant to locate the most current articles.
- ProQuest
- Although excellent for a broad range of topics, ProQuest is not our best database for scholarly articles in history. However, there are some East Asian history journals available here, so it's worth a look.
Online Reference Books and Subject Encyclopedias
The Library has several dozen reference works available online. Specialized subject encyclopedias, particularly those which have signed articles written by scholars and specialists, can be valid research sources. At the least, you may find the following titles helpful for background information.
- China: a Country Study
- Complete online book from the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress; all volumes in the "Country Studies" series are solid, well-researched reference works, but bear in mind this one dates from 1987, and thus will not be useful for recent history. Much more current (August 2006) is the Federal Research Division's China Profile (PDF).
- Encyclopedia of Multicultural America
- Essays on specific culture groups in the United States, providing information on historical background and settlement patterns. Might be useful for Chinese immigration to the U.S., the "Yellow Peril" scare, and the role of Chinese in western U.S. history.
- Immigration in U.S. History
- Examines the many issues surrounding immigration from a wide variety of perspectives - from the earliest settlement of British North America in the 17th century through the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of the 21st century. Places special emphasis on the many ethnic communities that have provided American immigrants.
- Encyclopedia of U.S. History: Government and Politics
- A concise history of the U.S. government and political scene throughout American history, this might useful if your subject involves Chinese-U.S. relations, particularly after 1949.
- Encyclopedia of Politics
- This reference work features over 450 articles on individuals, movements, political parties, and ideological principles, including Maoism; for research on modern China, some of these could be useful background material.
- Political Theories for Students
- Similar to the source above, this is a reference book that could help explain the ideological background of the Chinese Revolution, as well as providing insights into such figures as Mao, Deng, etc.
- Daily
Life through History
- Searchable content of many social history books; you can also browse by region or time period. Perhaps not the first place to look, but might prove useful in locating information about Chinese culture and everyday life throughout history.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
- Ordinarily you would not use a general encyclopedia for college-level research, but the online version of Britannica does have useful features: an updated world atlas, thousands of images and videos, and links to over 300,000 articles from respected magazines and journals (some of which are not available through our other databases). The Britannica Online also recommends websites which have been vetted for quality and reliability. This should not be the first place you look, but do check it out.
World Wide Web Resources
The World Wide Web has become indispensable for research, but the challenge is to identify stable, reputable academic sources. Search engines such as Google return too many hits, and most of them are not suitable. An excellent site listing various specialized search tools is
Look for sites that are kept up to date and which have an identifiable author or responsible party. You should be able to locate contact information easily (postal addresses, phone numbers, or at least an email address, ideally to someone more specific than "webmaster"). Individual or hobbyist sites are often entertaining and even authoritative for some subjects, but are not suitable for this class. Rather, seek out sites that have an educational, governmental, or non-profit organization affiliation, and even then use websites only as supplemental sources, not your primary ones.
Once you find suitable sources of information in any format, you will need to cite what you use. Please consult our list of citation resources.
Suggested Sites
The following Web sites may offer useful advice and guidance:
Guides to the "How" of Writing
- Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students
- A guide from Bowdoin College
- Some Tips for Writing History Papers
- A Cornell University professor's recommendations
- Garbl's Grammar Guides Online
http://garbl.home.attbi.com/writing/grammar.htm
- Claims to offer "everything you'll ever want to know about sentence structure and using the parts of speech correctly." This is one of a set of related, interlinked pages, all addressing topics of clear writing, punctuation, and communication in general.
- Writing Handouts Listed by Topic
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html
- The Online Writing Lab, or OWL, at Purdue University has dozens of handouts and guides available, both on matters of grammar, punctuation, and style, as well as on professional/business topics such as report writing, abtracting, resumes, cover letters, and so forth. A very useful resource.
Other possibly useful sites:
- History of China
- Part of a larger site called "East & Southeast Asia: an Annotated Directory of Internet Resources," from the University of Redlands; like most website directories, this is a mishmash of good sites, dead links, and assorted detritus; however, also like most academically selected directories, the ratio of good to bad is better than one gets with a random Google search
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook for China
- Extensive list of web sites, chosen and organized by Paul Halsall, editor of several other "Internet Sourcebooks"
- Internet Guide for Chinese Studies
- A large list of web sites, organized and selected by the Sinological Institute at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
- Chinese Collection
- Part of the Special Collections at the Univ. of Souther California, this online exhibit offers or links to numerous essays, images, and web pages from prehistory to the Qing dynasty
- Classical Historiography for Chinese History
- Compiled by Benjamin A. Elman, Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University
- A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization
- Hosted at Washington University, this site may be most useful as a source for images
- China
- This page, from the Univ. of Maine, may lead you to some nice pictures, but should prove useful for the bibliographies of mostly English-language works
- Chinese History Research Site
- Essays, sites, and other information selected and maintained by the Modern Chinese History program at Univ. of California, San Diego
Library Reference: (509) 533-3834 or 1-800-251-1972 or SFCC Reference Desk
SFCC Library 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr. MS 3020 – Spokane WA
99224-5288
URL: http://library.spokanefalls.edu/guides/hist141.stm
Last modified:Friday, April 10, 2009 .