I usually begin all of my upper-division disciplinary-specific courses in American history with a trip to the computer lab. (Notice that I said the computer lab and NOT the library). I usually require students in these upper-division courses to write a 15-page research paper based on primary sources. It is thus essential that my students know the kinds of materials available to them.
I begin with an introduction to Early American Imprints I (Evans), Early American Imprints II (Shaw & Shoemaker), and Early American Newspapers (1690-1876). Messiah College is fortunate to have all of these collections in digital form.
I then introduce them to things like WorldCat, America: History and Life, American Memory, Google Books, and Amazon.Com (the equivalent of books in print).
Over Inside Higher Education, Barbara Fister has an interesting post on other “tools for the scholarly trade.” She describes a course that she teaches for students interested in research and asks her readers to suggest some other “portable tools for a young scholar to carry around.”
Let’s help Barbara out. What other things should our undergraduate researchers be aware of?
Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com/). I like Zotero too, but I made the switch because of Mendeley's ability to import accurately from Google Scholar, and its management (including marking up) of pdf files.