British History Research Guide

QuickSearch is the search option at the top of the Libraries homepage. It searches both the Libraries collections and many (but not all) of the databases. You need to use QuickSearch to look for ebooks and/or print books. If you are searching by topic, there are two ways to limit your search to books. See the two boxes below.

If you are looking for a specific book, the simplest way is to type the title, or the first five or six words of the title, in "double quotes". If Rutgers has the book, it will appear at the top or very near the top of your search results. If Rutgers doesn't have the book, see Interlibrary Loan options below.

If you have any questions or run into any problems, my contact info is below the Related Guides tab.

The basic search option from the Libraries homepage searches authors, titles, subjects, and abstracts and fulltext, if available, across most of the Libraries resources: books, scholarly articles, news sources, videos, etc.

How to build your basic search:
Use "double quotes" to search as a phrase
Use * to search for forms of a word: monarch* searches, monarch, monarchy, monarchical, etc.
Use AND, OR  (in caps) to combine terms:
- AND focuses a search: "united kingdom" AND monarch* is more specific, retrieves fewer items than "united kingdom"
- OR broadens a search: "united kingdom" OR britain retrieves more items than "united kingdom" alone
Use parentheses to combine AND, OR: monarch* AND history AND ("united kingdom" OR britain)

Once you've completed your search, you'll see on the left a number of ways that you can refine, filter your search result. One of them is Resource Type. Click that and select Books. This will limit to both ebooks and print books.

QuickSearch may often deliver a rather overwhelming search result. Check out the other filters to gain more control over your search. Subject and Creation Date, for example, can be very useful.

From QuickSearch on the Libraries homepage, click Advanced Search on the right. Then, under Resource Type on the right, select Books.

As opposed to the default, the basic search, Advanced Search lets you search with more flexibility and precision by searching for words and/or phrases in specific "fields" (author, title, subject, etc.) in the records of the Libraries' books (or records of a different Resource Type or across all of the types). For example, if you wanted to find books by Churchill on the Second World War:
- In the first search box: Author ... is (exact) ... churchill, winston
- In the second box: Subject ... contains ... "world war, 1939-1945"
Then click Search

Books you find in QuickSearch can be delivered to the library of your choosing. Click the title in your search results to go to the full record, sign in (if you haven't already), then click Request Item.

Don't limit your research to just sources at Rutgers Libraries. The catalogs listed below provide access to library resources beyond Rutgers.

WorldCat
A worldwide catalog, many, many millions of records of books, journals, videos, etc. from libraries in over  170 countries. If you find a title that RU Libraries hold, there will be an RUL logo in the brief record; click the title to go to the full record, then click Get@R. If we don't have it and you want it, in the full record click Request Interlibrary Loan. 

Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
CRL is a special library that holds rare materials not often collected even by major research libraries. Rutgers Libraries is a member, and Rutgers researchers are eligible for long-term loans from their collections.

HathiTrust Digital Library
Bigger and better than Google Books. More titles, better search options. As of January 1, 2023, titles published before 1928 are usually available in full text. Click Log In in the upper right so that you can take full advantage of Rutgers membership, including creating and sharing personal collections.