If you know little about a topic, start with a tertiary source (such as Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia) for a quick background and suggested secondary sources, to dig deeper with further reading.
To decide where to look for the most appropriate sources, ask yourself:
What type of person or organization might have created sources about this topic? Where might these people have archived or published these sources?
a) Academic Databases
For a broad search of scholarly secondary and primary sources, start with:
- Trinity Library Catalog or Trinity WorldCat advanced search: library catalog of books, chapters, media, articles, and archives, with links to items at Trinity, Conn College, Wesleyan, and elsewhere
- Google Scholar (or use off-campus link) – scholarly articles and case law, with links to items at Trinity Library and elsewhere
For a narrow search, try databases selected for this course at Trinity Library:
- America: History and Life – scholarly articles, books, and reviews in U.S. history
- Education Index Retrospective – education journal articles, 1929-1983
- ERIC.ed.gov – education resources, reports, articles, hosted by US govt since 1964
- JSTOR – full-text of scholarly journals across fields, excluding past 2-5 years
- PsycArticles and PsycInfo – scholarly articles in psychology and ed since 1890s
- Sociological Abstracts – scholarly articles in sociology since 1952
- Trinity College Digital Repository, with Ed Studies senior research projects
- See all Trinity Library subscription databases
- Meet the Trinity research librarians and make an appointment
b) Digital Libraries and Web Archives
- Google Books – digital library of full-text books; some results appear as excerpts
- Google Ngram – search frequency over time of words/phrases in Google Books
- HathiTrust – digital library of full-text books, hosted by academic libraries
- Internet Archive – public digital library, with WayBackMachine for past websites
c) Government Data and Reports
- Connecticut General Assembly, with search tools for bill and state statutes, and Office of Legislative Research non-partisan reports
- Connecticut State Dept of Ed (CSDE) and its Performance Office for newer data and research, and CT Education Data and Research (CEDaR) for older items
- Connecticut open data repositories – see guide and links at DataVizForAll.org
- US Census and Social Explorer demographic data – see DataVizForAll.org guide
- US Department of Education, with National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Nation’s Report Card/National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
d) Journalism
- Chronicle of Higher Education – newsweekly online (Trinity network supports full search)
- Connecticut Mirror – statewide policy journalism since 2010
- EducationWeek.org – preK-12 newsweekly since 1981 (requires instructor’s password)
- Hartford Courant daily newspaper has two separate databases:
- Inside Higher Ed – journalism on colleges and universities
- National news – ProQuest News – Lexis Nexis Academic – Newspaper Source Plus
- See also New York Times Historical Archive (full-text 1854-2014)
e) Specialized data tools
- CT School comparison tool by CT Mirror
- CT Teacher and Administrator Contracts by ConnCAN
- FollowTheMoney.org to track campaign contributions in all US states, by National Institute on Money in State Politics
- GovTrack.us to track legislative process in US Congress, by Civic Impulse
- OpenSecrets.org to track donors and lobbying, by Center for Responsive Politics
- Open States to track legislative process in any US state, by Sunlight Foundation
- School Segregation after Brown, school data and court orders, by ProPublica
- Tax-exempt non-profit organization data with CharityNavigator.org and Foundation Center IRS Form 990 Finder