Reference works
Background or "reference" sources such as scholarly encyclopedias, handbooks, and bibliographies are a great place to start. They provide good overviews of the relevant scholarship and always include citations to secondary sources. Often they include primary source suggestions too.
A large collection of annotated bibliographies, often with citations to both primary and secondary sources. Includes the article "Witchcraft in the Atlantic World" and other articles relating to witchcraft.
Oxford Handbooks
Includes The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History
The articles here are arranged into subfields such as Colonial History and Cultural History. Includes the article, "The Salem Witch Trials."
Includes key reference series such as the Cambridge Companions and Cambridge Histories. Individual titles include The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West.
American National Biography Online
A useful resource for quick biographical references.
Main search portals
This guide is intended for students in Professor Rebecca Tannenbaum's course and provides an overview of key resources in the Yale Library for writing your research papers this semester.
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Yale Library Catalog (Orbis)Searches the books, e-books, journals, government documents, and other physical and digital items owned by the library. Individual journal articles are not retrieved by the search. Can be used to find both primary and secondary sources.
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QuicksearchA combined search of the library's books, journal articles, databases, and more. Searches Orbis as well as Morris, which is the Law Library catalog. Consider this a Google-like search of a vast amount of resources, but keep in mind some library materials are not indexed by the search. The search refinements and availability of multiple search fields are key to limiting the usually large number of results and finding the most relevant sources.
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Archives at YaleThe new search portal for finding archival materials at Yale. Look for the Scope & Contents notes, inventories, and PDF Finding Aids to assess the relevance of materials to your research project.
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Borrow DirectUse the Borrow Direct platform to find and borrow books from partner libraries when our copy is checked out or we do not own the item.
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Primary Sources at YaleAn engaging introduction to what primary sources are, how to find them, and what some of the major primary source collections are at the Yale University Library. Provides an excellent overview.
