History: New York State: Reference

Materials which are referred to for brief or general information. Examples include:

• Background or overview synopses (encyclopedia)
• Definitions (dictionary)
• Synonyms (thesaurus)
• Statistics
• Biographical Details
• Maps (atlas)

Reference resources are organized in an order that aids searching (alphabetically, chronologically, etc).  Most include an index which points users to the appropriate section.  Tips for searching:

1. Decide on your search terms
2. Try searching with them
3. If not satisfied with the results, try searching a synonym or related idea

Things to watch out for:

• Is the computer searching only the title/header of the entries or the full-text of the information?  You will get more results, but more of them will be irrelabent if you are searching the full-text.
• Are you searching for a proper noun (name, place,...)?  Make sure that the spelling is correct and try variations if it originated in a foreign language.
• Searching for something by date?  This is trickier than it sounds.  If possible, search for an event name or topic rather than a date, e.g. civil rights movement or hippies or flower children rather than 1960s.

• Historical Atlas of the United States. (Ref.G1201.S1N3 1988 - in atlas case 4)
• Richards atlas of New York State. 1959 (Ref. G1250.R5 1959)
• New York: atlas of historical county boundaries (Ref.G 1251.F7N4)
• Atlas of Early American History; the revolutionary era, 1760-1790. (Ref. G1201.S3A8 1976 - atlas case 4)

• New York: a guide to information and reference sources. (Ref F119.A1 L66 1980 w/suppl. 1987)
• Historical materials relating to Northern N. Y.: a union catalog. 1976 (Ref F 127.N9 H66 1976)
• A Guide to local historical material in the libraries of South Central New York State. 1976 (Ref F 119.A1 S58 1976)
• A Bibliography of New York State communities counties, towns, villages. (Ref F 119.A1 N47 1990) annotated, arranged geographically
• Research and Publications in New York State history. 1968-72,1976-80. (Ref F 116.A1 N5)
• Guide to historical resources in St. Lawrence County New York repositories. (Ref F 127.S2G84 1987)
• Reel index to the microfilm collection of New York County and regional histories and atlases. (Ref F 128.3.A1 R44 1977)

• Official Publications of the State of New York relating to its history as colony and state. 1917 (Ref. Z1009.N56 no. 59)
• New York State and Federal census records; an inventory. 1957 (Ref. Z1009.N56 no.81)
• Constitutional Developments in New York 1777-1958. 1958 (Ref. Z1009.N56 no.82)
• Indian Land Tenure: a bibliographical essay and guides to the literature. 1975 (Ref E 98.L3 S95 1975)
• New York in the American Revolution; a bibliography 1974 (Ref. F128.44.A13 K58 1974)
• Adirondack bibliography; a list of books, pamphlets and periodical articles published through the year 1955. 1958 (Ref. F127.A2 A3 1958 and supplements)
• Adirondack Books, 1966-1992. (Ref. F127.A2 W45 1994)
• A Bibliography of American autobiographies. 1961 (Ref. CT214.A1 K3 1961)
• A Directory of oral history and audiovisual local history resources in public libraries of New York State. (Ref. F119.P3 1985)
• See also the many ethnic bibliographies in Ref E 180s.

• American National Biography - a massive set. (Ref. CT 213 .A68)
• Dictionary of American biography, 24 volumes, 1928-1974 (Ref. E176.D562)
• The National cyclopeidia of American biography, 1898-date. (Ref. E176.N28)
• The New York Times obituaries index, 1858-1976 (Ref. CT213.N47)
• Biography index, 1919-date. (Ref. CT100 .B5)
• Abridged biography and genealogy master index (Ref. CT214.A27)
• Who's who in New York (1904,1924, 1929, 1938, 1952) (Ref. F 118.W62)