Resources  

Subject Guide To Books in Print: identifies books in print on myriad topics from antique price guides to the history of shoes.

Microfilm: available through your library via interlibrary loan. Includes newspaper microfilm, academic sources, periodicals.

Specialized dictionaries: slang, phraseology, place names/origins, etc.

Directory of Directories: handbook to specialized directories geared to specific topics.

Doctoral dissertations: University Microfilms International has a free subject catalog of more than a million dissertations available for purchase (1-800-521-0600)*.

Specialized libraries: range from materials held by the Society for American Baseball Research to Civil War battlefield site libraries. Contact the Special Libraries Association, 202-234-4700* for more information.

Museums: similar to above. Check the Directory of Museums to focus your search.

University staff: professors in various fields are marvelous "human" resources. Ditto physicians, dentists, law enforcement officers, etc. Can give an intro to their profession's library/resource systems.

Advertise on the Internet: rather than spend eons narrowing a cybersearch, solicit replies complete with sources from which they were was derived. Otherwise, you have no way to gauge the accuracy of what you receive.

*telephone numbers subject to change

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