General Use: Getting Started with Research: Search for Information

Click on the database icon (on the left) to access the database. 

Passwords can be found here. You must be logged into your school email to access the passwords document.

	Cultures, customs, food, lifestyles, holidays, folklore, language, maps, demographics and more on hundreds of countries.
	A wide assortment of maps for hundreds of countries including: regional, world, city, demographic, exploration, expansion, discovery, historical, holy, geology, climate and more!
	Discover the world's most influential people by searching narrative biographies, news, magazine, and multimedia content.
	Online encyclopedia which includes atlas, thesaurus and dictionary features, also news and video clips.
	Magazines, newspapers, biographies, primary sources, photos, maps, flags, dictionary and more. Includes Academic Search Premier, e-books and a professional development collection for authoritative resources on all levels of research.
	Find topic overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues.
	Understand context for hundreds of science topics through overviews, journals, news, interactive experiments, and more.
	Uncover information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history from a variety of sources.
	Uncover information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in world history from a variety of sources.
E Books
	Explore this database of full length encyclopedias and reference sources. For in-depth multidisciplinary research on all topics.
	Find a wide range of full length encyclopedias and reference materials including Defining Documents in History and Opinions Throughout History series which provide easy to understand analyses of primary sources and how opinions are shaped through history.
Citation Tools
	A full research portal to help you organize your work. Prepare citations, take notes, create outlines and bibliographies in multiple styles including MLA and APA.

Start with web based search engines (Google, Firefox) or general encyclopedias to gain some background knowledge of your subject. This stage of information gathering would be the only time that a site like Wikipedia would be appropriate to access. Better yet, find background information from our online Encyclopedia Britannica or Credo Source. You want to gain a broad understanding in order to know which areas to investigate in more detail. 

Narrow your topic to one that will provide enough information (but not too much!) for the length of your assignment. A ten page paper requires a broader subject than a five paragraph essay. This is a good time to check in with your teacher to review your topic choice.

Compile information from Library Databases and Suggested Search Engines to use when gathering information for your paper. Information from these sources are reviewed and evaluated by experts and are more targeted and reliable than sources found on the open web.

These videos discuss using keywords with databases but you can use exactly the same strategies in an internet search.

Destiny is our web-based library browser providing access to the library's catalog and digital content. It is web-based so it can be used from any Internet connected computer.

Click here to access Destiny.

Find out more about our Gale resources

The video below shows you some of the features available in our Gale resources.

Google is not an efficient way to gather resources. For better results use these links or the Library Research Databases.

SweetSearch: Every Web site in SweetSearch has been evaluated by research experts.

iSEEK: iSEEK for education is a targeted search engine for students.

RefSeek: RefSeek is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than one billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers.

BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine. BASE is one of the world's most voluminous search engines especially for academic open access web resources. BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library.

The Internet Archive: Large collection of digitized resources including many primary sources.

Google scholar: Academic and scholarly articles.

USA.gov: federal, state and local government sites.

infoplease: Atlas, Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus.

Google advanced search will produce better results than "Googling"

DocsTeach Explore primary documents compiled by the National Archives.

More information on online collections of historical and primary source documents.

Watch this video on Google Advanced Search. Note: since this tutorial was made, you find the Advanced Search menu in a different location

Need help? Ask Ms. Gadwah or email at

katie.gadwah@sau24.org