HIS 104 Ten Days That Shook the World (Dr. Tunnicliffe)

TMU Libraries Omni Search
For optimum use, sign in. This search engine searches for journal articles (many are available electronically), books, e-books, theses and dissertations, and newspaper articles from some recent and a selection of archival newspapers. It indexes digitized content such as out-of-copyright books and journals that are available from sources such as The Internet Archive and The Hathi Trust. Omni facilitates discovery and borrowing of print books from other universities in Ontario excluding the University of Toronto.

Refine your search using the filters on the left.

For more advanced searching across a more targeted set of resources, you may want to try a discipline specific indexing/abstracting database or collection as listed in the next boxes.

Omni replaces the traditional catalogue that used to search for books, e-books, dvds, and other resources except for journal articles. Now, Omni can be used to look for known books, or when using the default (a keyword) search to find some relevant titles for an assignment. Whether using a Simple or Advanced search, you can use the filters on the left to limit to Resource Type: Book chapters, or, Books & eBooks. You can use the Browse Search with the drop down option for Library of Congress Subject Heading. This type of search is ideal for finding Books and Ebooks in our collection. It will display a selective index of subject headings most relevant to your search When you find book records, you can use the Subject terms in the record to link to similar items. If you want to find books, e-books and articles at the same time, consider using Omni, Advanced Search and Subject Contains ...

Some useful subject searches using Omni Browse Searching & Library of Congress Subject Heading:

Boycotts
Civil disobedience
Civil rights movements
Democratization
Gay liberation movement United States History
Government, Resistance to
Passive resistance India 
Protest movements
Revolutions
Slave insurrections Haiti
Social justice United States
Women Suffrage Great Britain History
 

[Name of a country or geographic region] -- History -- [may have subdivisions for time period, type of content etc.]

China History Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989
France History Revolution, 1789-1799
France History Revolution, 1789-1799 Influence
Haiti History Revolution, 1791-1804
South Africa History 1909-1961

[Name of country or geographic region] -- Politics and government

China Politics and government 1976-2002
Germany (East) Politics and government
South Africa Politics and government 1948-1961

The Name of a person, or, Name of an organization, or,  Name of a building searched as a subject

Bastille
Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005
United Farm Workers

Name of a topic or event as a subject -- [subdivision for state/country--city] 

Civil rights movements Alabama Montgomery
Grape Strike, Calif., 1965-1970
Stonewall Riots, New York, N.Y., 1969

Keyword / default Omni search for name of a person (may add another keyword)

gandhi salt
rosa parks boycott

Keyword / default Omni search for topic

delano grape
defiance south africa
montgomery bus boycott
pro-democracy
storming bastille
tiananmen

tiananmen [Omni Advanced search, Subject contains ...]
saint-domingue [this was the early name of Haiti]

Encyclopedias and dictionaries

remain useful sources of quick information.  In addition to free sources such as Wikipedia, consider some of our licensed electronic content from publishers such as Oxford University Press, as well as printed items. 

Try using Omni, Advanced Search and Subject contains: [type a topical word or words] and either dictionaries, or, encyclopedias

Example Subject contains searches:

• africa history chronology
• decolonization dictionaries
• feminism dictionaries
• great britain colonies dictionaries
• great britain colonies encyclopedias 
• history dictionaries
• politics and government dictionaries
• postcolonialism encyclopedias
• women suffrage encyclopedias

Biographical information

Consider these resources:

• American National Biography (1999, 24 vols.), and, Supplement (2002-) (for people who are deceased)
• Dictionary of African Biography (2012, 6 vols.) Available in print at the Toronto Public Library
• Encyclopedia of World Biography (2004) 4 supplementary vols. also available
• International Who's Who (for living persons)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004, 61 vols.) Supplements for recently deceased (2001-2004) & (2005-2008)
• Who's Who (Great Britain, for living persons)
• Who's Who in America (for living persons)
• Current Biography (1941-2015) Toronto Public Library has more recent years.
• Abridged Biography and Genealogy Master Index (1988)

Historical Maps and Atlases

Try Omni Browse Search, and Library of Congress Subject Heading:

• Africa Maps
• China Maps
• India Maps
• World history Maps

The David Rumsey Map Collection makes accessible historic maps of North and South America

Country Studies (brief histories, statistical overviews)

Europa World Year Book (print, latest held 2016)   

EIU Economist Intelligence Unit (online)

OECD Library (online)

Statesman's Yearbook (print, latest held 2024)

World Almanac and Book of Facts (print, latest held 2018)

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations (2001; more recent eds. at Toronto Public Library)

Some Free Online Resources

The CIA World Factbook - brief information on the history, government, economy, military of 267 countries

New York Public Library-Digital Collections - includes images, postcards, printed ephemera, books

World Digital Library 

Over 19,000 items (especially books and maps) about 193 countries spanning 8000 BCE to 2000 CE. Includes content from the Daily Sketch, a British tabloid newspaper established in Manchester in 1909 and later moved to London.

Other Libraries

The Toronto Public Library (TPL) has ongoing subscriptions to many biographical resources as well other dictionaries and encyclopedias that are not available at TMU. Many of the resources are located at the Toronto Reference Library situated just north of Bloor Street on Yonge Street.