Where to Find Monographs?

Although scholarly monographs are self-contained (they can stand on their own), they may be part of a series of books covering a wider subject area. Scholarly monographs are typically purchased by academic and research libraries for use by scholars, including students. You won't usually find them on bookstore shelves.

How do you identify a monograph?

How do you tell? Look at the notes, which will often have abbreviations (acronyms) and short author/title citations. Using that information, go to the bibliography and find the origin of the information. Obviously an article published in 1985 cannot be a primary source for events that occurred in the 1830s.

What is a monograph source?

Searching for Historical Monographs

A book-length treatment of a topic, also called a monograph, is a type of secondary source. ... Usually, that author is a professional historian who has done original research on the topic and is writing to help students and other historians understand that topic.