LAS 283 -- US-Mexico Borderlands (Fall 2014): Getting Started

• Select an interesting and doable topic.
• Identify each component of your topic.
• Select appropriate terms to describe the components and use truncation as appropriate.
• Determine the correct use of Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT). Click here for an explanation.
• Select fields to search if appropriate (author, title, subject).
• Limit your results as necessary (date, scholarly vs. popular, etc.).
• Evaluate your results and rethink your strategy as necessary.

When you begin a research project, it is helpful to do some background reading to get some basic information on your topic, e.g., keywords, important names, dates, etc. CredoReference is a fulltext online reference service comprised of over 3 million entries from hundreds of well-regarded reference titles. Content includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and subject-specific titles.

Subject-specific reference materials can provide beginning researchers with the following:

• an overview of a topic and how it fits into the broader picture,
• the various aspects of a topic to help broaden or narrow the area of research,
• the vocabulary (a.k.a. keywords) associated with the topic to use at the computer,
• the names of important people or organizations associated with the topic,
• a bibliography to lead to other relevant items on the topic, including major studies, books, articles and researchers.

Hint: Look for the word count at the bottom of each entry to find longer articles.