On this page, you will find resources for starting a project, researching, and learning about the collections at Duke.

Rubenstein Library

The Rubenstein Library is home to several collections, including

Using the Reading Room

The History Hackathon will involve introductory sessions to conducting research in the Rubenstein Library. However, the library contains plenty of information online about how to use their facilities.

Please remember to bring your Student ID.

Research Guides

Rubenstein Library maintains a large list of research guides for several topics and types of source materials. For the full list, please visit their research guides page. You can also search the full collection of finding aids.

  • Advertising, Sales & Marketing History
  • African and African American History & Culture
  • American Literature
  • Civil War Resources
  • Comic Books & Graphic Novels
  • Durham and Local History
  • Economy
  • History of Medicine
  • Human Rights
  • Jewish Studies
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Religious Materials
  • Slave Letters
  • Women’s History & Culture

Library Resources

Students are also encouraged to utilize the full library resources through the Duke Libraries system. Duke has an enormous collection of secondary works, including online journals, eBooks, an impression collection of research databases, along with millions of books through the multiple libraries around campus.

Digital Collections

Duke also offers an enormous number of digital collections, providing patrons with digital versions of library materials as well as tools to browse, search, and analyze these materials online. In addition to providing easier access to these materials, digital collections aid in the preservation of materials by reducing the need for handling the originals.

For a full list of the digitized collections, browse their collections page.

Reference Librarians

Need more help? Ask a reference librarian!

The Edge

Digital Studio

For students interested in digital projects, The Edge offers drop-in ours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am-2pm in its Digital Studio to help familiarize you with frequently-used software.

The Digital Studio includes 3 Mac workstations with dual monitors and 1 mobile display screen with HDMI and VGA connections.

Analytical Tools

  • DEVONthink
  • Evernote Premium
  • Dedoose
  • Gephi
  • NVivo for Mac
  • Juxta
  • Mallet
  • Voyant

Publishing Tools

  • Omeka
  • WordPress

Data Management and Editing Tools

  • Filemaker Pro
  • Oxygen
  • Google Refine