If you find a book through the catalog or SuperSearch that we only have in print, see if you can find it in the Internet Archive. You can borrow digitized copies of books for up to 14 days with a free account. Access is limited to one user at a time per book, so be sure to return the book as soon as you're done, to make it available for others, or use the 1-hour borrowing option. If you want to search for keywords in the full content of all of the Internet Archive's digitized books, change "Metadata" to "Text Contents."
This guide provides some useful starting places and strategies for doing research for this course. I'm happy to consult with you on any aspect of your research, from developing a research question to finding, evaluating, and citing sources.
SuperSearch can be a great place to start to find out what's out there on your topic. SuperSearch will find books, journal articles, films, news, and almost everything else the library has — from popular to scholarly sources. You can use the filters on the results screen to improve your results.
For searching with more focus and precision, try one of the databases recommended on this guide.
Databases can contain a combination of full-text (ready to read online) and citation information that can lead you to articles, book chapters, or books. It's always a good idea to search in more than one database. Even when there is considerable overlap in content, the different features of each database can help you find different sources. Check out our full Database A-Z list and sort by Subject to find other databases for your topic. (For example, Cinema & Media Studies for film history, or Women & Gender Studies for gender-related topics.)
Start with a keyword search. Once you find a book that's relevant to your topic, click on the title and look for the Subjects listed for that book to help you find "more like this" and explore related aspects of a broader topic.
Example: Keyword search: immigra* AND "chinese americans"
Subject terms for the books that come up in this keyword search lead you to many more books on aspects of the topic, for example:
United States -- Emigration and immigration -- History
Chinese Americans -- History
China -- Emigration and Immigration
Asian Americans
Ethnic neighborhoods -- United States
(For tips on keyword searching, such as using the asterisk * for wildcard searching, see the Search Tips & Tutorials page of this guide.)
The American Historical Association has put together this page on finding and evaluating archival resources that can be a good start for your search: Finding and Evaluating Archives
Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present (e-book)Full-text historical news articles in major American and British newspapers, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and more.
Dates: 1791-2003 CE
Full text of more than 1,000 historical U.S. newspapers. Contains Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.
Dates: 1690-1998 CE
Can't find what you're looking for at Wellesley?
Use Interlibrary Loan to request directly from libraries worldwide.