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, Elvis, capital punishment, gun control, steroids, Shakespeare, etc.

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).

To find periodicals on eating disorders in Auraria try appetite disorders - periodicals. You can find such titles as: eating behaviors, eating disorders review, international journal of eating disorders, etc.

To find books on opposing issues or contemporary world issues or opposing viewpoints do a keyword search in Skyline.

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

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: anorexia and teenagers -- will retrieve all articles with both anorexia and teenagers in the article.

OR - Expands a search
example: teenagers or adolescents - will retrieve all articles with just teenagers, all articles with just adolescents, and all articles with both teenagers and adolescents.

NOT - Removes a term from a search
example: teenagers not adolescents -- will retrieve all articles about teenagers but remove all articles with any mention of adolescents. 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: suicide and (teenagers or adolescents) -- will retrieve articles on "suicide and teenagers" and "suicide and adolescents."

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.