Library 101: How to begin your research

Getting background information on a research topic

When planning your research, depending on how familiar you are with your topic, it may help to look at some background sources, often referred to as "reference" sources. These might include encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, factbooks, etc.

NU Library has a growing collection of online reference or background sources in their Virtual Reference Collection

Finding Books

Use NUcat (the online catalog) to identify books and journal titles that are available electronically. (Limit the search to Location Electronic Resources.) More on How to Find a Book

To obtain materials from other libraries, use the request forms from the Interlibrary Loan Department.

Finding articles and other material

Use databases to track down articles in journals. Some databases, particularly the general ones, include the full text of the article. You can find the databases by going to the library's home page and selecting "Electronic Resources." Type in the name of the index that you need from the "Quick Search" menu.

You can also click on Find... Databases in the library homepage and will be taken to Einstein, which works similarly to Electronic Resources

Article databases allow you to perform complex searches within a limited scope of material. Einstein QuickStart and Google Scholar are two tools that let you search very broadly but with less precision and Einstein Quickstart searches across several databases at once. This can be helpful early in the research process.

Be sure to set your preferences in Google Scholar so you can link to NU resources.

Finding the full text of the article once you've found an article citation in a database...

General Databases

Academic OneFile
A collection of full-text articles in HTML and PDF format from more than 8000 journals and magazines with extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature, and other subject; intended primarily for academic researchers.

Academic Search Premier
Multidisciplinary coverage of journal literature, including biological sciences, economics, communications, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts and literature, medical sciences and women\'s studies.

CQ Researcher
CQ Researcher covers controversial topics in depth, providing historical, current and future analysis, as well as the pros and cons for each topic.

News Databases

LexisNexis Academic
Full text articles from several thousand news, legal and business publications.
Note: The New York Times full text is available from 1980 to current.
The Washington Post is available from 1977 to current.

Chicago Tribune
Full text articles from 1985 to current.

Los Angeles Times
Full text articles from 2006 to current.

Factiva
Full text articles from several thousand news sources, many focused on business and finance topics. To search for publications such as transcripts and editorials, click on Search tab at the top, then select Source, then in the Select Source Category drop-down menu, select Publications By Type. You can then select Transcripts.

Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Selected full video clips and descriptive summaries of the Vanderbilt University collection of network television news programs and other news-related programming collected in its archive since August 5, 1968.


Examples of subject-specific databases

Art Abstracts
Citations and some abstracts to articles from American and foreign periodicals and museum bulletins dealing with the arts and related disciplines.

International Political Science Abstracts
Citations and abstracts to the international literature of political science.

America History and Life
Citations and abstracts from more than 2,100 journals of American and Canadian history.

Communication and Mass Media Complete
Citations and abstracts to the literature of communication and media studies.

PAIS International
Citations in public policy, social policy and the social sciences.

Sociological Abstracts
Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

Psycinfo
Citations and abstracts to articles in psychology and related disciplines.

Econlit
Citations and selected abstracts to articles from more than 400 economics journals.

Find other databases by subject

NU Library's Research Guides by subject

Take a look at the Research Guides A-Z prepared by the Library's subject specialists.

Cite your material in a standard format

APA Style (An online guide from Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL))
The complete APA style manual, officially called Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition, 2001 is located at the Reference Desk at call number 029.6 A513p 2001

MLA Style (An online guide from Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL))
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition, 2003 is located at the Reference Desk at call number 808.02 M685 2003

Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, 2003, is available online or in the Reference Room and Core at call number 655.2 C53 2003

Turabian, a version of the Chicago Manual of Style geared toward writers of term papers. The 6th edition, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian, is located at call number 029.6 T929m 1996 at the Reference Desk.

Need Help? Ask a librarian

If something doesn't work right, or if you can't find what you need, get in touch with the Reference Librarians.
Call us at 847-491-7656
E-mail us at refdept@northwestern.edu
or connect with us real-time through Answers Online or IM

Jeannette Moss
Reference Department
Email:j-moss@northwestern.edu
Office phone: 847.491.2169
Reference desk phone: 847.491.7656