Use the resources listed on this page to find relevant information on topics in History. They will predominantly give you access to secondary sources of information (secondary literature), which describe, summarise, analyse or discuss information or details originally presented in another (primary and/or secondary) source. For example books and journal articles.
References to published materials in the arts and humanities including journal articles, letters, editorials and reviews.
This database is part of the Web of Science Core Collection. To search just this part select 'Arts & Humanities Citation Index' from the 'Editions' drop down list.
References for historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British Empire and Commonwealth, from 55BC to the present.
Covering visual arts in all media from around the world with references to journal articles, monographs, exhibition catalogues and other material.
Google Scholar is the academic version of Google. It allows you to search for scholarly literature (journal articles, books, patents) from a variety of sources, including academic publishers, professional societies, and online repositories.
Gives references to journal articles, conference proceedings, essay collections or Festschriften covering all aspects of medieval studies.
Choose the International Medieval Bibliography database when you reach the homepage.
Search across several dictionaries and encyclopedias covering visual arts including painting, sculpture, graphic arts, architecture, decorative arts and photography.
Searchable research guides across a variety of subject areas.
Biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.
Access to articles in over 500 journal titles in arts, humanities and social sciences.
Gives references to journal articles, books, conference proceedings and patents in all subjects. Also offers extensive tools to analyse results, and measure impact for articles, journals and authors.
Full-text of over 4500 titles in the humanities. Most titles are listed on Enterprise.
Biographies of more than 19,000 men and women, from all eras and walks of life, whose lives have shaped the American nation.
Compiled by Betty S. Travitsky, BEWW is a growing list of scholarship of over 700 recovered writers and texts. As well as more familiar figures, it also identifies many previously unknown writers, such as women refugees, women translators, and English women writers in French, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh.
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is a collection of TV and radio programmes from free-to-air channels. Set new recordings and playback programmes already recorded. Content back to 1990s.
The full-text of over 140 titles, both monographs and essay collections, in the humanities and social sciences, hosted on the Oxford Academic platform.
Contains primary and secondary sources about Britain and Ireland from 1100 to the mid-20th century, with a particular focus between 1300 and 1800.
Historical summaries covering a range of topics primarily in the humanities.
Find definitions in dictionaries and other reference works in all subjects.
Access to articles in over 8,000 journals, plus access to The Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, and The New York Times. Includes podcasts from NPR and CNN.
Use this resource to search across Gale's research content, including resources on literature, newspapers, and ebooks.
Gives references to journal articles, books, reviews and selected chapters in subjects including anthropology, economics, political science and sociology.
International Historical Statistics is a large collection of statistical data from around the world, covering a wide range of socio-economic topics. The collection includes data on the Americas and Europe, but also hard-to-find data on Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Bibliography covering the European Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Access to thousands of films for the arts & humanities.
Merged online catalogues of many major UK and Irish academic, National libraries and specialist libraries.
E-books published by Manchester University Press. Includes the following collections: Manchester History of Medicine; Manchester Medieval Sources; Manchester Shakespeare.
References to publications covering literature, language, linguistics and folklore worldwide.
Full-text access to books and journals published by Oxford University Press, covered by our subscriptions.
Oxford Reference allows you to search across multiple dictionaries and reference titles. We have access to the Premium, Literature and Western Civilization collections.
Archive of journal articles in a range of subjects.
This resource provides materials on feminism (covering the period 1776-1928) published by Taylor & Francis. It includes primary and secondary sources, such as full books, selected chapters, and journal articles, as well as thematic essays.
Access to over 1000 books and reference works in the field of research and methodology, designed to help researchers in every step of the process.
Click here for Project Planner
Click here for Which Stats Test
Biographies of important individuals.
Provides references to journal articles and other publications in all subject areas. Includes the Arts and Humanities, Science, and Social Science Citation Indexes.
Check which indexes you wish to search under 'More settings'.
Essentially a vast Library catalogue. Gives references to books, theses, and other published materials in all subjects.
References to publications covering political science and international relations, including international law and public administration/policy. Includes journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, and working papers. Covers 1975 to the present.
If you are on campus you will be able to access most e-journals and e-books, and some databases, without entering a username and password because your IP address identifies you as being at the University of Reading.
For any that require a login, see the Off-campus tab.
When you use our e-resources you are agreeing to our Terms of Use. Please take a moment to look at these by following the link below:
When you are off-campus you will need to login to identify yourself as a member of the University of Reading to gain access to our protected databases, e-books and e-journals.
Your login details
You login in the same way as for Blackboard - via Microsoft. Just enter your University username followed by @student.reading.ac.uk (e.g. ab123456@student.reading.ac.uk) and your password. If this is the first time you have logged in via this method when off-campus you will be asked to complete a Multi-Factor Authentication. For more information see:
Watch this short video on how you login to use Library resources.
Freely available e-books from a number of university press publishers.
This playlist of two videos shows you how to prepare for and perform a literature search. The first video introduces literature searches and their role. The second video covers using the search operators AND and OR to create a search statement, and explains the role of wildcards and truncation in constructing a comprehensive search. This information is also available in written guides - see the links below.
Reading University theses and dissertations
The Library receives a copy of all theses accepted for the degrees of PhD and MPhil by the University. All theses held by the Library can be found on the Enterprise catalogue. Recently submitted theses might also be available to download from the University's Institutional Repository, CentAUR.
Masters theses can usually be consulted in the relevant school or department.
Finding theses from other institutions
There are a number of specialist sources for finding theses produced at other institutions around the world. Many more are becoming available online making it much easier to get the full-text. For more information see our guide to finding theses.
See our guide to finding theses for more information:
Conference papers are published in a variety of ways - they may be published as a book, or as a special issue or supplement to a journal. Some may not be published at all!
If published promptly they can you give you the latest information on research in your field.
See our guide to finding conference papers for details of specialist sources for finding this type of information.
Newspapers can be a good source for the latest developments in a field and for current opinion on controversial topics.
We have online access to a number of current and archive newspaper issues. For further information and links go to our Finding newspapers guide.
The UK Parliament and other national and regional assemblies and parliaments around the world typically publish official papers on their activities, providing a potentially rich resource for research into political and legislative processes.
The Library holds an extensive historical collection of UK parliamentary papers, much of the content of which is now also accessible electronically; current and recent parliamentary publications are ordinarily available online. For more information, read:
Maps can be used in nearly all disciplines to either research or display spatial information. The University Library contains about 70,000 maps and atlases, covering the whole world. They include original and facsimile maps from medieval to modern times, and access to online resources is also available.
To find out how maps can help you, see our presentation on Using maps for your research:
For more information see the following guide:
For digital maps of Great Britain, the best place to start is Digimap. This includes nine datasets, including contemporary Ordnance Survey maps; historical Ordnance Survey maps; geology maps; environmental land cover maps; marine charts and thematic data; aerial imagery; census and socio-economic data; detailed building and land cover data and world maps. Maps can be printed out or data downloaded for use in a geographical information system.
Map data of Great Britain. Includes Ordnance Survey, historic, geological and environmental map data and aerial imagery.
A two part registration is required to use Digimap:
1. Connect to Digimap using the link above and complete a registration form
2. Accept the licence agreements associated with each collection
You will need to re-accept the licence terms annually, in August of each year.
Edina's Digimap registration pages give more information and guidance. Please pay particular attention to the Privacy Notice.
Our Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).
For more information see our webpages: