Finding books and articles with background and interpretation of the events of World War I can help you with terminology to use in searching the London Times for articles related to the topic you choose. They can also provide background to help you contextualize, understand, and interpret the primary sources you identify, including your London Times article.

Library Catalogs

Use Library Search to find books and articles. The default search is KEYWORD. Choose "STARTS WITH/BROWSE" to search for an author or title.

Some Tips:

1. Start with a very general keyword search.
2. Don't use a, an, or the when searching for a title.
3. Use the filters on the left side of the page to narrow your results in various ways.
4. View the full record to review subject headings and see related books through the Virtual Browse at the bottom of the record.
5. Pay attention to the call numbers and note whether the material is shelved in the Main, Art, or Music Library. There is a map with a call number directory available at the Circulation Desk.
6. When you write down a book's call number, it's a good idea to also write down some words from the title to help you find it when you're in the stacks.

To get started searching for books about World War I, one way to search is with the phrase World War, 1914-1918

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

Vassar's Library Search does very well in finding books and articles in our library using keywords. If you would like to use Library of Congress Subject Headings to extend your ability to find books related in subject, try WorldCat Discovery.

1. Do a general keyword search or search for the title of a book that you already know is relevant.
2. Open the full record for that book.
3. Look for the Library of Congress Subject Headings and select one that's related to your topic.

The books that are available at the Vassar Library will be at the top of your results list. Most of the other books you'll find in WorldCat are available through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Browsing

When you find a catalog record for a book that looks like a good source, check out the "Virtual Browse" section at the bottom of the page. It has links for ebooks and books in print that are similar in subject.

You can also browse the shelves near any print books you find for related titles.

Here's a call number range to start with: 

• D501-680  World History, World War I

International Encyclopedia of the First World War - An open access English-language online reference work on World War One. Launched in October 2014, the multi-perspective is a collaborative project by the largest network of WW1 researchers worldwide, spanning more than 50 countries.

Cambridge History of the First World War- Written by an international team of historians, this 3 volume series provides an authoritative account of the military, political, social, economic and cultural history of the Great War. Volume I surveys the military history, showing the brutal realities of a global war among industrialized powers, while Volumes II and III explore the social, economic, cultural and political challenges that the war presented to politicians, industrialists, soldiers and civilians. 

These are good resources for finding scholarly journal articles for topics related to WWI:

JStor: Provides full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, architecture and art history and other fields. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title, but usually ends several years before the current year. Use the Advanced Search to limit to journals in a subject area such as History, British Studies, or Feminist and Women's Studies, or use the filters on the results page.

Historical Abstracts: Index of scholarly articles on world history, excluding the United States and Canada. Date range of the articles:1955-present. Date range of the subject matter: 1450-present

Vassar Library Catalog: On the Results page, select the Peer-reviewed Journals filter to narrow to scholarly journal articles.

Times Digital Archive

Sunday Times Digital Archive

• Select a date range (1914-1918, eg)
• Try a keyword search using the search fields to search for a combination of terms 

• On the Results Page, use the Revise Search link to add terms or make other changes. If you use the back button, you'll lose your date filter and your search terms.
• Try the Topic Finder to the right of your results list.

Use the Periodicals & Pamphlets and Newspapers sections of Professor Murdoch's research guide to identify additional sources.

British medical journals from the time period are an excellent primary source for WWI topics related to health, injuries, and medicine. You can search several medical journals directly using the following links. Try different keywords that you find in your reading, such as "gas gangrene"  and "shell shock."

• The Lancet- a weekly peer reviewed medical journal published in England since 1823. To search for articles published during the WWI era, in HathiTrust:
  • using the ADVANCED SEARCH, search for TITLE EXACT PHRASE: The Lancet and FULL TEXT & ALL FIELDS: your keywords and/or phrases (put quotation marks around phrases, eg. "gas gangrene"). Add a publication year range under additional options.
  • when you open the full view of a volume, you can search for words and phrases within it by using the SEARCH IN THIS TEXT filter on the left.
• The British Medical Journal- The BMJ is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. It published its first weekly edition on 3 October 1840 as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal before uniting with the London Journal of Medicine and publishing from January 1853 as the Associated Medical Journal.  Four years later in January 1857, this merged journal became the British Medical Journal. To search for articles published during the WWI era, in JStor:
  • using the ADVANCED SEARCH, search for JOURNAL TITLE: British Medical Journal and TERMS: your keywords and/or phrases (put quotation marks around phrases, eg. "gas gangrene"), and select a DATE RANGE.

The Google Books Ngram Viewer allows you to see patterns of words and phrases being adopted and/or passing out of use by illustrating the frequency of terminology in published books during a time period. For instance, you can search for phrases such as "shell shock" and "neurasthenia" to see their changing frequency of use and search for them in published books from the period that are included in Google Books.