Background or "reference" sources are a great place to start your research and can be extremely useful, especially if you're venturing into a new research area for your project. They include bibliographies, scholarly encyclopedias, historical dictionaries, handbooks, and other works that provide overviews of topics and suggestions for finding both primary and secondary sources.

Databases are collections of digital resources made up of a potentially wide array of materials, such as academic journal articles, historical newspapers, digitized special collections (e.g., rare books, archival papers), and more.

Why databases instead of Google

• Academic databases are finite collections, whereas Google (even Google Scholar) searches the whole of the Internet, which is VAST.
• Academic databases have better quality control, as they rely on trained professionals to make sure the articles and book chapters are truly scholarly. Google, on the other hand, relies on an algorithm. 
• Academic databases offer more ways to refine your search, so you get more precise results.

Use these guides to find resources on specific regions or subjects.

Subject-specific databases are a key resource for finding secondary literature, including the latest scholarly journal articles in the field, and the main subject databases for finding historical literature are:

• Historical Abstracts (covering all areas of world history except the U.S. and Canada)
• America: History and Life (covering the U.S. and Canada)

Searching these databases will allow you to check for the latest scholarly articles, reviews of books, citations to book chapters, and more in a wide array of historical journals.