How to Do Library Research

This set of pages has information on how to do library research. In all cases, once you have located sources, be sure to evaluate them, using the evaluation guides.

Indexes for Current Topics

Use these indexes to find articles on current, policy, general, and popular topics. Some of these identify scholarly sources. Once found, evaluate each article. Always identify and locate (and at least skim) more articles than are required for an assignment. To find the best sources possible, make comparisons among several articles.

Academic Search Premier. Dates of coverage vary by title. Updated daily.

Covers multidisciplinary topics. Includes scholarly journals and full text of some articles; articles in PDF have images. "4,500 journals, including full text for more than 3,700 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles." Limit by published date to identify recent articles on topics. Subject terms not as refined as in other databases, so it will be necessary to do multiple searches on topics. Can do image search (under "More" at very top of initial page).

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. 1900- . AI 3 .R48 Reference South

General interest periodicals. Be certain to check in the front of this index for the full title of abbreviated journal titles in years before 1988. (Readers' Guide began including complete journal titles in its citations in 1988.)

Social Sciences Index. 1907- . (Title varies.) AI 3. I496 Reference South

Covers journals in anthropology, criminal justice, economics, family studies, geology, international relations, law, minority studies, political science, psychology, social work, sociology, women's studies, and other related areas. Be certain to check in the front of the index to find out the full title of the abbreviated journal titles found in this index.

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