History (General)

+ This assignment must be typed.  You will need to use online resources (http://library.csus.edu) AND visit the library in person. 
+ DO NOT ask reference librarians for help with these questions.  They have been instructed not to help, which goes against the very core of their being.  Instead, you can ask me, or, Ben Amata has developed a webpage to help you if you get stuck on something. 

•  In the library, please return all materials to their original and upright position as a courtesy for students who will follow in your footsteps.
• Sloppiness in citations—misspellings, incorrect titles and punctuation, lack of capitalization, and failure to underscore or italicize book, journal, and newspaper titles—will be marked down.  
• When asked to make a Xerox, it must be readable for research purposes or it will not count.

1.  Tell me what would be the full subject heading for the following particular events.  This can be found using Eureka.  A) the federal prison on Alcatraz Island.  B) the Bay of Pigs invasion.  C) history of Reconstruction in Louisiana.

2. Locate the print index for the New York Times (ref AI21.N44) in the Reference section of the library.  A) Answer just TWO of the following four questions—your choice.  1.  For the years 1935, 1936, and 1937, list how many different articles, illustrations and editorials are found in each year for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.  2.  For 1933, 1934 and 1935, list how many different articles, illustrations and editorials are found in each year for Alcatraz Island.   3.  For the years 1949, 1950, and 1951, list how many articles, illustrations and editorials are found in each year for the Scottsboro Case.  4.  For the years, 1943, 1944, and 1945, list how many articles, illustrations and editorials are found in each year for Pabst Brewing Co.  B) If I now wanted to read any of those articles (not online) at CSUS, in what format would I read them:  a bound collection, as the original newspaper, microfiche, microfilm, DVD, etc.?


3. A) Find the print index to the San Francisco Chronicle (AI 21 S3) in the reference section of the library.  For any four of the following years, 1978 through 1985, how many articles, letters, editorials, etc. are listed in each of those years for the Boy Scouts?  B) If I am looking through the 1985 index for the San Francisco Chronicle and found an article that had this at the end, explain what it means:  Apr 21:D-1-3.  C) If I want to use an index for the San Francisco Call for the year 1910, what is the call number for it?  D) For what years does the library have an index for the Sacramento Bee?  E) What is the call number for an index for the 1962 San Francisco Chronicle?  F) For what years does the library have indexes for the Los Angeles Times?  NOTE: Eureka will find you the indexes.

4. A) Using the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, (which is found in the reference section of the library on floor 2 AND the lower level of the library--AI 3 .R4), answer any TWO of the following four questions.  Remember that sometimes an article appearing at the end of an index volume year does not get included until the following volume.  For example, a volume for the year 1979 might contain an entry for the preceding year, 1978.  Remember also that you are not simply counting the article titles, but the number of different magazines and magazine issues in which the article appears.  Count each time it appears in a different issue or magazine.  One title that appears in two different months of a magazine in 1976 would be counted as two for 1976.  Be careful, take your time, go slow and double-check your answer!  1. How many times do articles found under the heading for copper industry and trade appear for each of the following years:  1938, 1939, 1940, and 1941?  2. How many times do articles found under the heading for Thomas Nast appear for each of the following years:  1903, 1905, 1907, and 1908?  3. How many times do articles found under the heading medical students appear for each of the following years:  1968, 1969, 1970, and 1971?  4. How many times do articles found under the heading military reconnaissance appear for each of the following years:  1913, 1914, 1915, 1916?  B) What does the following entry mean:  Science N L 35:34 Je 3 ’39?

5. Stay with the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature.  Pick any year of the guide from the 1970s.  Pick any article listed in it from any magazine of which our library has a copy.  Go to the mechanical stacks (or in highly technical library lingo, compact shelving) where the older magazines are held and find that article.  Oh, but how to prove you did all that?  I know!  Provide a Xerox of both the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature page you used (with the article highlighted), and the first page of the article you found.  Make sure to mark the entry for me.

6. What guide or index do you use for periodical articles from the 1870s?

7. Stay with the mechanical stacks/compact shelving in the lower level of the library for the following questions.  Please make sure to return the volumes to the stacks so that your fellow students can complete the assignment.  After all, we are historians and we want only to further everyone’s historical knowledge and make huge sums of money.      Answer any FOUR of the following questions.

A) On page 99 of the January 1929 issue of the American Magazine, for what three conditions can Pine Tar Shampoo be used?

B) What painting and by what painter graces the cover of the June 1946 issue of Art News?

C) In Dr. Amos R. Koontz’s indictment of nurses in the November 1959 issue of RN, what does he blame in paragraph five for the “obvious laxity” found in nurses?

D) On page 22 of the July 1902 issue of Out West, the picture is of what?

E) Give me the first four lines of Florence Converse’s poem, “Bread Line” in the January 1932 issue of Atlantic Monthly.

F) In the March 1936 issue of The Communist, finish this sentence found on page 247:  “Lenin’s thesis is--. . . .”

G) On the cover of the October 1976 issue of Esquire, there is a woman tonguing Robert Blake’s ear.  Who does it list as the only person who can “lick Baretta”?

H) And you thought Listerine was only for bad breath!  In the first ad pages of the June 21, 1943 issue of Life, what did Listerine guard against?

8. Go to Government Documents in the library, and to the microform documents that are housed in the file cabinets against the wall.  Find the microfilm copies of the Census Reports (C3.23…) that are located in the farthest left file cabinet in the seventh through ninth drawers from the top.  Pick any city or county and any year (no earlier than 1880) and then cue it up on the old microfilm reader/copier in the Library Media Services on the first floor.  Pick any person.  A) Write a paragraph about that person that includes all the information you can find (e.g. address, when born, marital status, etc.).  Think like a historian!  B) Xerox that person’s complete entry (it may take two or three Xeroxes) and include it with this assignment.