Search for Articles, Books & More
Remember these guidelines when you search:
Treat your initial strategy as a hypothesis.
a. Your first strategy is a guess about how authors and indexers will describe the topic. There will be vocabulary problems you haven't anticipated.
Browse your initial results to find other approaches to the search
a. Give serendipity a chance
b. View complete records. Make sure you have displayed all the fields in the records.
Try several alternate strategies.
a. As you browse records you will probably see more than one approach to searching the topic.
b. Take the time to try each strategy, then pool the results at the end.
c. Don't be lazy! A properly conducted search will save time in the long run.
Check out this guide from Washington State University to learn more about primary and secondary sources.
If you are having a hard time getting started, or run into a road block with your topic get direct help! Schedule a Research Consultation with your subject librarian to get one-on-one assistance.