LibGuides: Ancient History: Articles

About Databases

What is a Database?

A database is a collection of articles which are accessible online, but which (in most cases) first appeared in print sources such as scholarly journals, magazines written for the general public, or newspapers. The articles have been placed online so that they can be easily searched and accessed.

A database normally lets you search for articles in a variety of ways, including by keyword, subject or author. Some of the articles you retrieve will only be article abstracts, or summaries. Other articles will appear in full-text form, meaning the entire article is available to you. Most databases have a full-text option you can choose so that only full-text articles will appear in your search results.

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Suggested Databases for Ancient History

The databases listed here are especially useful for finding information on topics in ancient history. You can also see a complete listing of STLCC Library databases.

Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Extensive coverage of a huge range of academic topics, including ancient history. Indexing is from 1977, with full-text coverage from 1983.
Extensive coverage of all academic disciplines including astronomy, religion, law, history, psychology, humanities, current events, sociology, communications and the general sciences. Indexing is from 1977; full-text coverage from 1983. Academic OneFile also includes peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources, full indexing of some of the world's greatest newspapers, and access to wire services covering worldwide current events. Millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML, including full-text coverage of the New York Times since 1995.

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Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Another very useful, general academic database with coverage of topics in ancient history. Full text information dates as far back as 1985.
Academic Search Premier includes 4645 magazines and journals in full text, of which 3855 are peer-reviewed. The database indexes and abstracts a total of18,999 magazines & journals.

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System Requirements
American History Online This link opens in a new window
Includes information on Native Americans in prehistoric times.
American History Online spans political, military, social, and cultural history and features "Learning Centers" that bring forward specially selected entries from many Facts On File titles. It includes biographies; events and topics; more than 2,150 primary source documents; timelines; overview essays outlining time periods; nearly 3,200 images depicting key figures, places, and events; original maps, graphs, and tables; a spotlight providing an in-depth look at a topic such as the Lewis and Clark Expedition or immigration; and an "Editor’s Selection of the Month" highlighting an event tied to each month.

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Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
Indexes, abstracts, and selected full-text from periodicals in art.
Art Full Text is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles from periodicals published throughout the world. It covers Advertising Art, Antiques, Archaeology, Architecture and Architectural History, Art History, Computers in Art, Crafts, Decorative Arts, Fashion Design, Folk Art, Graphic Arts, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Motion Pictures, Museology, Non-Western Art, Painting, Photography, Pottery, Sculpture, Television, Textiles, and Video. Full-text coverage for selected periodicals is also included. Periodical coverage includes English-language periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins, as well as periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, and Swedish. In addition to articles, Art Full Text indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in indexed periodicals. Indexing coverage begins 1984; abstracting coverage begins with January 1994. The abstracts range from 50 to 300 words and describe the content and scope of the source articles. Full-text coverage begins in 1997.

MOBIUS-wide simultaneous user limit: 12.

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ARTstor (JSTOR Images) This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a digital library of approximately 700,000 images for non-profit educational use, with coverage of antiquity.
The ARTstor Digital Library provides more than one million images with tools for teaching and research. Its collections comprise contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates from all over the world. The collections encompass a wide variety of subject areas, including art, architecture, music, religion, anthropology, literature, world history, American Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, and more.

Users can do keyword or advanced searching, or browse by collection, classification, or geography. Results can be sorted by date, creator, or title, and filtered by geography, date range or classification. Users can view images and image data, zoom in on and pan images, and experience 360 degree panoramas through QTVR images. Organize images into groups, or print and save images and related data to other hardware (e.g. CD, memory stick, hard drive). Upload and manage personal images and sound files in ARTstor. Tools for sharing include saving, emailing, and printing citations for images or image groups; downloading image groups for use in presentation software such as PowerPoint, KeyNote, and ARTstor's Offline Image Viewer (OIV); exporting citations for images or image groups into EndNote, ProCite, RefWorks, Reference Manager, or a text file; and generating URL links to images and groups for integration with local course management software and sharing with students.

Please read Use restrictions and see the Knowledge Base for further help on resources and testing.
System Requirements.
World History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Includes coverage of the Ancient Mediterranean, Ancient Near East and Asia.
Features extensive coverage of the 20th century, the Ancient Mediterranean, Ancient Near East and Asia as well as the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the modern Middle East and Latin America. History Resource Center: World moves chronologically from antiquity to the present and geographically around the globe. Provides integrated searching of full-text periodicals, reference works, primary documents and scholarly analysis.

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