Research Guides: Humanities Core: Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources interpret and analyze primary sources, and draw interpretive claims from that inquiry. They include works such as reviews for a general audience, and also scholarly works such as peer-reviewed journal articles.

Image: "Captialismo, negación de los derechos humanos," Poster by OSPAAL (1977). Calisphere.

Additional Subject Guides

Students are encouraged to visit the full Research Guide of any discipline to see a more comprehensive listing of databases and resources relevant to that subject area.

General - Multidisciplinary

UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
Use this tool to search for print and e-books, journal articles, digital collections, and more, all with one search. Search across all UC Libraries.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Covers all topics, and contains both scholarly and popular resources, like magazines and newspapers. (Ebsco platform)
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
A broad collection of journals and ebooks with emphasis on humanities and social sciences. Publishers include numerous university presses and scholarly societies.

Art and Architecture

Art and Architecture Source This link opens in a new window
An excellent starting point for all visual arts research! This database covers all periods and media (historical and contemporary, decorative and commercial art, various areas of architecture and architectural design). It includes scholarship starting from the 1930s to the present, is international in scope.

ProQuest Arts Databases
Search databases, including the International Bibliography of Art, for scholarly articles and other research resources. Proquest

Film and Performing Arts

FIAF International Film Archive Database This link opens in a new window
The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) produces the International Index to Film Periodicals– a database for researching film history, theory, and criticism. FIAF indexes coverage of academic and popular film journals by searching the International Index to Film Periodicals from 1972 – present. This database also includes FIAF’s “Treasures from Film Archives” which is a detailed index of silent-era film holdings of archives globally.
Film Index International This link opens in a new window
Film Index International covers film history, cinema studies, Hollywood, movie industry, and covers all aspects of film studies including silent film, art house, and blockbusters. Coverage is international in scope, indexing films from over a hundred countries. It is produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute.
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance This link opens in a new window
Full text of core scholarly and trade journals in Drama and Dance disciplines.

History

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides bibliographical coverage of the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada), including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more.

Proquest News & Newspapers
Digital archive of full-text current and historical newspapers on the ProQuest platform. Titles include Alt-PressWatch, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, US Major Dailies (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, LA Times, Chicago Tribune) and 20+ national and international historical newspapers. Proquest

Literature

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is an index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations, with links to full text in other subscription databases. The database also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus.
ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
Compiles a collection of primary texts, ebooks, reference sources, full-text journals, dissertations, video and more, for access to historical and contemporary content by and about celebrated and lesser-known authors from around the world.

Music

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
Selectively indexes scholarly writings about music occurring in journals, books, dissertations, festschrift, conference proceedings, and other similar publications. Primarily focused on Western art music, but one can locate some interesting literature related to musical theater also. Indexes writings that were published from early-20th century to the present.
Music Index This link opens in a new window
Provides cover-to-cover indexing of scholarly journals in the field of music. Includes feature articles, review articles, and reviews.