Example. If a citation leads you to the book Educational laws of Virginia: The personal narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a southern woman, who was imprisoned for one month in the common jail of Norfolk, under the laws of Virginia, for the crime of teaching free colored children to read, copy the title into the library catalog search box.
Added Note:
For books from the 19th century, be sure to also check HathiTrust and GoogleBook. Many older works outside of copyright have been scanned as PDFs.
If you see a citation for an interesting article, or you find the article online but it's behind a paywall, search the title in the library catalog (link below). As an example, search "Learning from the Long Civil Rights Movement's First Generation" in the catalog for access.
If it doesn't come up, try America: History and Life. Each database is owned by a different company, and sometimes an article we do own will only show up in some of our databases. It is frustrating. If you can't find an article anywhere, no worries: use ILL.
Do.Not.Buy.Articles!
This link opens in a new windowIf you cannot find a book or article in our catalog or databases, request it via InterLibrary Loan (ILL).
ILL is free and gives you access to important resources we don't own. As an example, we don't own A civil life in an uncivil time : Julia Wilbur's struggle for purpose so you would order it through ILL.