Q. I'm doing a paper and need sources on the background of American History, like its trends, background.

We have some great resources for American History, you can find them under  A-Z Databases: American History. 

Your best best for background and trends is American History Online. You an search for specific information, but also browse through eras, topics, and timelines. Another approach is from Salem eBooks, Defining Documents in American History: Themes, where themes such as worker's rights are followed the beginning of American history to current, or Grey House: Opinions Throughout History, also by themes such as mental health.  

We also have some great guides on American History, which curate top books, eBooks, articles, streaming media, primary sources and open access sources by era or specific topics. 

Another great place to look is OneSearch. OneSearch searches almost all our databases simultaneously, so you don't have to know which database is best ahead of time. while still being able to find articles, streaming media, books, eBooks and more. It's also the best strategy for hard to find topics. 

Once you've done a search you can save time by using options on the right side of the screen

1. You can use the OneSearch pull down menu to re-run your search restricting to online only resources, library catalog or articles.
2. Use Sort By to re order your result list by: Relevance, Date-newest, Date-oldest, Author or Title.
3. Use Availability to limit to Peer-reviewed journals, Full Text Online or Available in the Library
4. Use Source Type to limit to things like Articles, Books, newspapers and more. This will vary depending on your search.
5. Use Date to limit results to a date range.
6. Use Subject to narrow down your topic. This will vary depending on your search.

Want more? Try How to Use OneSearch

Did you know? Our databases provide citations!
For citations, it depends on the individual database, but they all provide citations. You can go to the Grab a Citation page in the Cite APA Style and Cite MLA Style guides to get step by Step instructions with screen shots.