It is important to remember that you choose a topic which is not only interesting to you but also appropriate to your capabilities and to the time available.

To find specific sources:

Search Skyline for books, e-books, journal titles and other materials in the Auraria Library on anorexia, euthanasia, capital punishment, body art, jazz, or whatever topic interests you for a paper.

Search Gold Rush to find what database indexes a journal in your topic and whether the articles are available full text or not from Auraria or from all the larger Colorado Front Range libraries

Search Prospector for books, e-books, journal titles and other materials in the major Colorado libraries

Search WorldCat for books, e-books, journal titles and other materials worldwide, including your local university or college library

Reference sources

Tip: A word search in Skyline using your term and the word "encyclopedias" will pull up specialized encyclopedias on the topic (example: Eating disorders and encyclopedias).

Citation styles

Style manuals are tools for giving credit to the original authors. Use this QUICK ONLINE GUIDE to citing styles (B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library at Long Island University). The two main citing styles in use for your subject are MLA an APA. Check your syllabus for the preferred style.

MLA - MLA handbook for writers of research papers REF DESK LB2369 .G53

APA - Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. REF DESK BF 76.7 P82

Internet Sources

Lii.org (Librarians' Index to the Internet) is a well maintained source of quality web sites in many subject areas

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources

Google Advanced Search

Tip: If you are searching on the Internet, remember the Library search tips and think about the reliability and accuracy of the information.

Doing effective searches online - Boolean Searching

You can save time and get better information by learning how to apply Boolean logic and other search strategies to your online searches.  All online keyword searches use some form of Boolean logic.

• Boolean Logic allows you to combine keywords to make a search more precise.  The three combinations are:  AND, OR, NOT

AND - Narrows a search
example: animal experiments and controversy  -- will retrieve all articles with both animal experiments and controversy in the article.

OR - Expands a search
example: controversy or opposing viewpoints - will retrieve all articles with just controversy, all articles with just opposing viewpoints, and all articles with both controversy and opposing viewpoints.

NOT - Removes a term from a search
example: controversy not opposing viewpoints  -- will retrieve all articles about controversy but remove all articles with any mention of opposing viewpoints.  Use NOT sparingly because you often lose many useful pieces of information.

• You can combine and, or, or not in your searches by using parentheses. 
  Example:  animal experiments and (controversy or opposing viewpoints)  -- will retrieve articles on "animal experiments and controversy” and "animal experiments and opposing viewpoints."
• Most systems also let you limit your search by looking for exact phrases, limiting by date, company name, images, etc.  Read the help screens to see what each system let's you do.
• CAUTION: How you use Boolean logic varies in different databases and different search engines E.G.  SOME SYSTEMS USE "+" INSTEAD OF and.   Find this information in the help screens.
• For more about effective searching, ask a reference librarian or checkout this site on Boolean Searching.