Scope: KnowItNow callers often seek information about major world events and biographies of important historical figures.

Library Catalogs:  

 Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings & Call Numbers:

             Please see the document at the following URL for a complete listing of subject headings and corresponding call numbers related to World History. http://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/lcco_d.doc

Dewey Subject Headings and Call Numbers:        

• Africa 916
• General History of Africa 960-969
• Ancient World 913
• History of the Ancient World 930-939
• Asia 915
• General History of Asia, the Far East 950-959
• Biography 921
• Europe 914
• General History of Europe 940-949
• North America 917
• General History of North America 970-979
• South America 918
• General History of South America 980-989
• Other areas 919
• General History of Other Areas 993-999
• World History 909     

Keywords: The following sample terms are intended for use in library catalogs and online searching.

 Ancient- archaic, early, primitive

 Asia- Far East, Orient

 Autobiography- confessions, diary, personal account, personal narrative, personal record

 Biography- account, bio, life history, life story, narrative, profile (modern), saga

 History- ancient times, antiquity, past events

 North & South America- Western Hemisphere

 World- globe, global

Suggested Google Search Strings:

 The following suffixes may be used together with the search strings below to designate governmental or educational sites:

 .gov, .edu

 The following are some samples of search strings which can be used in connection with world history inquiries. 

•            A history of
•            Daily life in ancient
•            How did
•            What happened at
•            What is a
•            What was a
•            What was (name of country or location) called before (time period or event)
•            When was the
•            Where was
•             Who was
•             Why did
•             Name + biography
•             For example "Nelson Mandela" + biography” 

 

OhioWeb Library Databases

 Biographies Plus Illustrated database. Works best if searched by subject. For example, “Washington, George.”

 Worldbook Advanced database.  Good for general information about historic figures and events.

ClevelandPublic Library (CPL) databases

These sources are available only to providers who have access to CPL databases:

Encyclopedia of World Biography (CPL) This source includes over 7,000 biographies of notable individuals from all over the world and from all time periods. 

Historical Abstracts  (CPL): This leading index of world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada) covers the period dating from 1450 to the present. Moreover, if features hundreds of thousands of abstracts and citations to journal articles (many of which link to full text) , books and dissertations on a variety of topics related to world history.  Given this source’s sophistication, it is probably best to use it with high school-age callers and above.

Free Online Sources

AlternaTime: http://bit.ly/bMgzvw George Emery, a librarian, compiled this list of links to various online timelines covering a range of countries and time periods. 

Journal of World History: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jwh/ This site features an extensive online archive of full text versions of this journal dating back to 1996.  It is best if used with high school-aged callers and above. 

This Day in History: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history This is a portion of the History Channel’s site and it allows the user to search by date to find out what happened on particular dates throughout the world.  The site works best if you use the calendar included to find the dates you’re interested in.  There is no advanced search interface, so attempts to search by inputting dates in the search box will result in false hits due to keyword-only searching.

 Books

 The books indicated below are very useful for those locations which possess them:

 Mellersh, H.E.L. & Williams, N. Chronology of world history.  Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1999. LC: D11 .M39; Dewey 902.02;

 Commire, A. & Klezmer, D. Historic world leaders. Detroit: Gale Research Inc, 1994. LC: CT103 .H57; Dewey: 920.02

 Journals/Magazines

 History Magazine