Women's Studies Program

Census Data:

• Historical Statistics of the United States
• RAND California
• U.S. Census Bureau Data Access Tools

Public Records created by various government agencies are collected and stored in archives, such as:

• National Archives and Records Administration
  NARA records cover a wide span of American life, and include census, immigration, naturalization and military records. Many are available only on microfilm
• Google Directory: U.S. State Government Archives
  List of links to state archives and historical societies, for information about and access to a variety of public records held at the state level.

 Historical Maps:

Maps are an important component of historical study that can help you to understand events. Many libraries are now converting the most important historical maps into digital form so that they can be more widely used. Some good Web sites for historical maps are:

• Perry-Castañeda Map Collection
  University of Texas Library site includes maps of Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and other regions as well an extensive collection of links to other map sites. Also includes
• Library of Congress Map Collections: 1500-2003
  Digital samples from the Library's historical collection are organized into seven subject areas, including exploration, cities and towns (shown in the illustration below), military battles. Map images can be zoomed so that small details are visible.  
• WWW-VL: History: Maps
  This is an extensive guide to digital map collections. Use it to find information about map reading as well as many different kinds of maps.

Search the library catalog to find primary sources owned by Fresno State Library.

Words in the subject field that may give clues to primary sources are:

charters / correspondence / diaries / early works / interviews / manuscripts / oratory / pamphlets / personal narratives / sources / speeches / letters / documents

Example

Title:  The 1912 election and the power of progressivism: a brief history with documents

Subjects:

Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1912 -- Sources.   

Presidential candidates -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.   

Progressivism (United States politics) -- Sources.   

United States -- Politics and government -- 1909-1913 -- Sources.

Please Note: These two special research centers have different openings then the Library.