Historical Fiction
Your Librarian
Albertsons Library
Office: ALBR 401F
Email: georgannkurtzsha@boisestate.edu
Background Information
As you write your work of historical fiction, you will want to place your story within the actual events of the time, use descriptions of places and settings that are historically accurate, and refer to notable people of that day and age. This guide directs you to various sources that will help you find such information. What you find useful in this guide will depend on your story and your time period. Please note the tabs at the top of this guide: LC Subjects, News/ Events, People/ Daily Life, Places/ Settings, Other Resources. LC Subjects gives some background information that will be helpful when searching WorldCat Local.
Background Information
The box to the left refers to the resources used to search for books on your topic. You might also search more specifically for a specialized encyclopedia on your time period. These can be incredible treasures of background information. I've listed a few examples below. Notice that some have narrower topics than others, so if you don't find an encyclopedia on your event, consider how your event might be within a larger topic. For example, you can't find an encyclopedia on the shootout at the OK Corral? Try the Encyclopedia of the West.
Encyclopedia of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, McCain F592.7 .W68 2004, 2nd floor
Historical dictionary of the Vikings, DL65 .H62 2003, 2nd floor
American Eras…various subtitles and call numbers, browse at ref E164 .A474, 1st floor
American Decades, E169.12 .A419 1994b, 3rd floor
also electronic through Gale Virtual Reference Library
Also, try your topic in one of the three big online reference databases:
Find Books... and more books
Books are very useful sources of background information. Try a search in WorldCat Local for your historical topic. And Google Books lets you search within the content of books that have been digitized... that can sometimes identify useful books that aren't retrieved in a regular book database.
- WorldCat DiscoveryWorldCat Discovery is a great place to start searching for books, articles and media located at the Boise State University Albertsons Library. This database ALSO searches for books, articles and media available at thousands of libraries worldwide. Use the Interlibrary Loan service to request those items that are not available at Boise State University Albertsons Library.
- Library CatalogSearch for books and media located at the Boise State University Albertsons Library--this is the database from which WorldCat Local obtains the availability and location information for books, journals and media. This database does NOT include books, journals and media from other libraries, nor does it include articles. It does include some electronic and audio books. Why search this resource? You can explore Library of Congress Subject Headings in a different way in this resource--you can browse subject headings or search subject headings with specific words. See the LC Subjects page for more information--at the bottom of the LC Subjects page is a short description of how to search subject headings in this catalog.
- Google BooksSearch the contents of thousands of books that have been digitized through a cooperative agreement between Google and selected university libraries. Some content is available online, but not all.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
To find background information in encyclopedias or dictionaries in the library collection, use Library of Congress Subject Headings similar to:
Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)—Encyclopedias
United States—History—Revolution, 1775-1783—Encyclopedias
Vikings—Dictionaries