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Chicano Studies

Research guide for Chicano Studies

Why Start with Background Information?

Not sure what you want to research? Consider the following:

  1. doing some background reading on your topic using a reference book or specialized reference books or eBooks. An article in an encyclopedia or a reference book will help define your topic. 
  2. browsing newspapers and magazines
  3. making a list of terms or keywords that can help you in your search for relevant materials. Think of synonyms for the words you identified in your research question. 
  4. checking the works cited or the bibliography for additional sources. 

eBook Databases

  1. Gale eBooks: A collection of encyclopedias and specialized reference volumes for multidisciplinary research.
  2. EBSCO eBook Collection: More than 14,000 eBooks. Sources include reference books, scholarly monographs, fiction, and non-fiction.
  3. Daily Life though History: Examines numerous facets of societal life across cultures and time periods. Searching can be by topic or by topic combined with other concepts such as time period and area of the world. 
  4. Springer eBook collection: An online electronic book collection of more than 7700 titles whose subject content is especially strong in scientific fields. The resources include textbooks and reference works as well as some open source journal articles.