1. Specific Names - Many of the World's Fairs have specific names associated with them. For example, the World's Fair that took place in San Francisco, California from 1939-1940 was named The Golden Gate International Exposition. The names of the fairs are listed on the home page of this libguide. A more comprehensive lists of resources and images can be found by searching under both the location of the fair and its official name.
2. Multiple Years - Some of the cities have had multiple World's Fairs. For examples, Chicago, Illinois had the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and A Century of Progress Exposition in 1933-1934.
3. Basic Searching - The default for most search engines and database searches is a keyword search. This means that the term searched can be found anywhere in the item or item's record. Examples of other types of searches include title, author, or subject. These can usually be found in a drop-down menu next to the search bar.
4. Boolean Operators - Boolean operators include the words AND, OR, and NOT. They are basic search tools that can be used to narrow or expand your search results. An example is shown below that was taken from the Univeristy of Indiana Libguide:
http://www.library.kent.edu/images/boolean.gif.
5. Advanced Search Options - Many databases have advanced search options. These include additional searching features such as publication data, language, subject heading, type of article or document, and if the article is in full-text. This can be expecially useful in searching for document types such as images. Additional tips for searching are also included in this area including proximity searching, truncation, and limits. Advanced search options are found in different locations depending on the database such as underneath the search box and on the database's searching tips or help pages.
6. Additonal Resources - The following are additional resources from UW-Madison that can be used while searching:
The following databases were used to locate journal articles, newspaper articles, book reviews, and other types of resources that included images and information about the World's Fairs in the United States.
All of these databases were accessed through the UW-Madison Libraries database system and many require campus log-in. If access is not available, contact your university or local library to see what databases that they subscribe to. The databases on this list were choosen because of their emphasis on historical informaiton and images in the United States that have a wide variety of sources on the World's Fairs, but other databases can be used to find this information as well.
The following sources were used to find books and other resources that contained images and information about the buildings of the World's Fairs in the United States. They are all library catalogs or databases of material, except the Images of America Website that focus specifically on a book series of American history.
There are also many websites that can be used to locate images and information on the buildings of the World's Fairs of the United States. The website that were most useful for finding information on the World's Fairs included state and local websites and historical societies of the location of each World Fair.
These website can be found using search engines such as Google.com or Yahoo.com using searching terms that include the state or city that the fair was located in and the phrase "historical society." Because anyone can post information online, be sure when using a website to look for images or information about a World's Fair that it is reliable. Any websites that have .org or .gov at the end of the URL is usually a indicator that this is a trusted source, as it means that it is from a non-profit or government organization.