Books are often a useful starting point for historical research. It's a good rule of thumb to gather a cross section of books that include the last 20 years to get the most up-to-date scholarship. Tip: read book reviews to find out what other experts in the field think and remember to look at citations for research inspiration.
Boston College's eight libraries have a world class research collection with more than a million books for your perusal. The bulk of the history collection sits physically in O'Neill Library and/or online. Use our Library Catalog (Primo) to search for specific titles or authors or look for material on specific subjects using keywords. Don't forget to limit your search by date.
Use the BC catalog to explore the books we have here.
Your local libraries have excellent monographs and anthologies located in O'Neill library as well as through the BC libraries portal. Try searching for books (only books) through the WorldCat library system to see if we have what you need. If we don't, you can order material through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
A selection of databases Boston College subscribes to with extensive eBook collections. To browse (look through titles), try exploring some of the content. To search (look for specific titles), try using the Boson College Libraries' catalog.
Each year, several hundred already-published titles are converted into ebooks. Titles in this collection included are especially valuable, time-tested books, regularly consulted and cited by scholars and students. The criteria for inclusion in the collection stress a title's importance to humanistic studies.
