This page is intended to help History students find relevant research material for assignments in KPU History courses. Please contact the History librarian for questions about Library research. All questions about the content of courses and assignments should be directed to your instructors.
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Call numbers are like a book's address on the shelf - they help you locate items in the library. You will always find books shelved together by subject so understanding call numbers can help you find many resources on the shelves. Your Kwantlen library - like most academic libraries worldwide - uses an alpha-numeric (letter and number) system to arrange books on the shelf.
Locating a book is a progressive process: for example, to find a book with the call number DC256 B4613 1966 follow these steps.
DC → first find the call numbers starting with D: following that will be DA, DB, DC etc
256 → now start looking for the number, starting with 1 and working your way up to 256
B → now start looking for the next letter, starting with A, B, C, etc.
4613 → now start looking for the next number, starting with 1 and working your way up to 4,613
1966 → the year the book was published
The Location: This will tell you which campus has the item, or if it is available full text online. Most items can be transferred to another campus through the "Place Hold" or "I Need Material" links.
Reference books and circulating books are shelved separately. In the Surrey library reference books are on the ground floor and circulating books are on the second floor.
Call Number Ranges for History
Who is the author?
Reference books are useful as a first step in research - they will provide a quick overview of a topic that will allow you to understand its specific terminology and parameters.
The University Library maintains a separate collection of old, rare, valuable, fragile, or unique items which require special handling or care to assure their long-term availability. The primary purpose of this collection is to support teaching and research within the University and the community. Special Collections is located on the first floor of the Surrey campus library.
The collections are for research use by faculty, staff, and students as well as visiting scholars and may be of particular interest to History students. To access Special Collections material ask for help at the Library checkout counter.
Users of the collections must adhere to general restrictions:
- Material must be used in the Special Collections room
- Material cannot be borrowed from the collections except by express permission of the Special Collections librarian
- Material is not eligible for interlibrary loan or intercampus transfer
- Permission must be granted to photocopy items from the collections
- Eating and drinking are prohibited while using Special Collections material
Our oldest book:
The oldest title the Library owns is a three volume set by Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715):
The history of the reformation of the Church of England, printed at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1679-1715.
Call number: BR 375 B87 1679 (Special Collections - Surrey)
Try searching by particular era or time period - for example:
or search under individual countries - for example:
or search under specific events - for example: