Librarian Highlight: Mary Cargill

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Name: Mary Cargill

Title: Reference Librarian

Subject Specialities: British and American government documents, all areas of history and the humanities

Contact info: cargill@columbia.edu

Library: Butler History and Humanities Library

@ Columbia since:1983

Education info: BA in history from  Beloit College, MA in modern British History from Boston University, Masters in Library Science from the University of Western Ontario.

About me: I take great pride and pleasure in assisting students and faculty with research projects. This email from a professor sums up the librarian I try to be:

I hope you realize that seniors in my section wrote with great affection in their acknowledgments about the help you gave them on their senior essay. "Ask Mary Cargill" became a refrain of our group, and they truly did appreciate your accessibility and guidance. I will be seeing you around and doubtless sending many more queries your way over the summer. Thanks, Betsy Blackmar”

 What’s new at my library: Oxford Bibliographies Online has very good introductory surveys of a number of topics, with references to both print and online sources.

 Personal favorite: Anything that will answer the question, really, but I have found the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center a great source for all kinds of military history. 

 Recommended resources:

  • The Index-catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office, both in print and online is a rich source for all kinds of 19th century social history.
  •  American foreign relations since 1600 : a guide to the literature (Butler Reference Desk,  R016.973 Am3547) is a model bibliography, and very useful for identifying both primary and secondary sources.