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HIST 3191: American Sport History

Library Search for Books

Use the Libraries' Advanced Search to find books on your paper topic.  You can find both primary documents and secondary sources through Library Search.  Just follow the suggestions in the search tips.

When looking for books by topic, enter your keyword(s) into the search boxes. Break up your topic using different keywords, putting them on separate lines.

SEARCH TIP:  If you are using a phrase in your search, be sure and put it in quotation marks, e.g., "college football"

SEARCH TIP:     Use the asterisk  *  as a wild card to pick up variant endings of words, e.g., athlet* will retrieve athlete, athletes, athletics, athleticism, etc.

SEARCH TIP:  To find primary documents, use one of the boxes in the Advanced Search to include keywords such as: sources OR letters OR diaries OR "personal narratives" OR "oral history" OR correspondence OR speeches OR interviews.

SEARCH TIP:  Be sure and do an author search in Library Search to see if the person/people that are prominent in the topic you are researching authored any materials.  Books written by people who participated in an event are considered primary documents.

Government Documents

The WMU Libraries owns a sizable collection of government documents.  ProQuest Congressional contains legislative information and House and Senate hearings going back to the founding of the nation.

Visit the Subject Guide to Government Documents site to get an overview of what kind of information we have available.

The Big Picture

Use a book like this one to get an overview of sports history in the U.S.  It might help you choose or narrow down a topic.

Encyclopedia of Chicago

Explore the World of Information Beyond WMU

Use MelCat and WorldCat to identify pertinent resources "out there" that are not owned by the WMU Libraries.  You can request items directly through MelCat and through Interlibrary Loan from WorldCat. We will borrow the book(s) from another library and the service is FREE to you.

Where Are the Books Located?

Most of the books on sports and recreation are located in the Education Library in Sangren Hall.  When you find a book in the catalog, look at the book's LOCATION to make sure you are in the right library.

Meet Your Librarian

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Carrie Leatherman
She/Her
Librarian:
Office: Waldo Library Room 1048 (First Floor)
Office Phone: (269) 387-5142