- St. Olaf Libraries
- Research Guides
- Writing 120C&F: Living Well in Climate Change
- Learn about your topic
Writing 120C&F: Living Well in Climate Change
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Research & Instruction Librarian for Instructional Design & First Year Experience
Why do background research?
It's important to familiarize yourself with a topic before you begin doing more specific and extensive research.
Background research will help you:
- Narrow your topic and focus your research question
- Find historical information, trends, agreements and disagreements, related to the topic, and uncovers gaps in your knowledge
- Learn the context of a topic -- the who, what, when, where, why, and how
- Uncover keywords you can use to do more extensive research
- Find additional sources on your topic
Reference Databases
- CQ ResearcherFull-text reports on current issues including health issues, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Includes background information, overviews, pros and cons, and sources for further research. Covers materials published 1991-present.
- Credo ReferenceOffers full-text access to over 500 highly-regarded titles from 70 publishers. Covers every major subject in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences from the world's best publishers of reference.
- MasterFile CompleteOffers the largest collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books and other highly-regarded sources from the world's leading publishers. Covering virtually every general interest subject area, it also includes an extensive collection of photos, maps and flags.