Knowing what to do first when starting a research project can be confusing. There are a tons of places to try and they all offer different things.
Before you can start a deep dive looking for material, you should start with background research. Background information provides you with the important context of an idea or topic that helps you better understand your area of research. At its core, background information is what you need to know about a subject before you can research a specific question or argue a specific point.
Also, background information can include your own personal and community experience. As a student, you have likely encountered many situations and learning opportunities that have informed your understanding and opinions on various subjects. While these are not "academic" sources, your experience matters and can help you understand all sides of a topic.
The links below take you to our recommended library databases that can help you start your background research.
Once you've completed background research, you can start looking at individual databases. Unless your topic is highly specific, we recommend looking at multi-subject databases. These are broad, interdisciplinary databases with a lot of information about a lot of things. They include articles, books, and media resources.
The links below take you to our recommended multi-subject databases.
This is just to get you started. Once you have a handle on what is out there, you can do deep dives into subject specific databases and archives. Research is a process and it's always a good idea to try several avenues to find what you need.
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