Reference books can provide background material and be a launching point for further research. You might hear these books referred to as tertiary sources.
You can search for e-reference items in Primo Discovery by finding the Source Types limiter in the sidebar and limiting to Reference Entries.
You can find the following physical reference books in the Reference section of the library.
World War I by 
World War II by PrimoDiscovery is the gateway to finding books. Search using keywords, such as World War, civil rights, or specific names of people or countries.
Use the filters and limiters in PrimoDiscovery to limit to Held by Library (for physical items), Books, or Book Chapters.
​Blumberg Memorial Library arranges materials by the Library of Congress Classification System. Books on history generally fall into the following call numbers:
History (General) D
History (America) E-F
Databases allow you to find scholarly articles. To see all of TLU's databases, visit the Blumberg Memorial Library Resources page and select either databases by Subject or by Title.
Here are a few key databases for history.
Provides full text for nearly 3,200 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
Provides citations to 450,000 resources on the history of the U.S. and Canada (prehistory-present). (Limited to 6 simultaneous users.)
JSTOR offers researchers the ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. The journals archived in JSTOR span many disciplines.
Provides full-text access to several periodicals, some dating back to the early 20th century. (Limited to 14 simultaneous users)
Provides full text for 6863 unique titles published between 1684 and 1912. This collection documents the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. It covers advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry and professions, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more.
Additional web resources are listed on the History databases page.
To see if a journal or magazine is available, either online or in print, look in the Publications by Title list.
Need an item that our library doesn't own? No worries, you can email the title, author and date of what you need to ill@tlu.edu or fill out a form. We can get most (but not all) articles within 2 days and many books within 4-8 days.
For more information, visit our interlibrary loan page.
If you are using an off-campus computer, you will be prompted for your last name (Not your network username but last name only) and your 8-digit TLU ID number.
For some databases, instead of being asked for your instead of your last name and ID number, you will be asked for your normal TLU network username and password (Microsoft 365 Single Sign-On).
Librarians offer in-depth research help.
During library open hours, ask at the main desk for help finding what you need. The desk is usually staffed by student workers - if you have in-depth research questions, just let them know that you want to meet with a librarian.
Click on the Ask a Question tab on the right side of a library web page. It will bring you either to live chat, or to a place where you can leave a message.
830-372-8100 (main desk)
Library directory (list of individual library staff and faculty)