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UGS 303: Rethinking the Founding - Sparrow

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Find Articles on a Topic

For this assignment, you might need several types of sources:

Source Type Start Here

Scholarly Articles

Library databases, see recommendations below

Books (can also be scholarly)

Library Catalog - look at the find books tab
Primary Sources Can be in books, historical newspapers, and more - look at the find primary sources tab.

Searching databases is different than searching Google. Distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases, rather than whole sentences. 

  1. Write down your topic and underline the main concepts (ex. What was the treatment of Native Americans under the government of Colonial America?)
  2. For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms (broader or narrower) that get at that concept:
    • Key Concepts 

      Native Americans Government Colonial America
      Related Terms

      ​Indians

      Indigenous Americans

      Policy

      Politics

      Colonial Period 

      Colon*

      1600-1775

  3. Combine key terms using AND and OR:​​
    • AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles). 
    • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
  4. Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search:

 

Databases

Multidisciplinary

History-Specific

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What are databases?

This video, from RMIT University, explains what a database is...

Where's the Article?

If you don’t see a .pdf of the article you want, click FIND IT AT UT to find it in another database or in print in the Libraries.

If it is only in print in the Libraries or we don’t own the article, click GET A SCAN to have the article emailed to you. This option will take a few days.

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