You have heard about it from your parents, or you may have experienced it yourself- a time when you had to go to the library and spend hours looking in books and journals to find any sources for your paper, and if the needed source was not in that library, you would have to travel to find it at another library. Those were the days before the Internet and computer databases made doing research that much easier. Now you can choose to look up peer reviewed papers in online databases, work with a librarian to find reputable websites or books from another state or country, or even go old school and look up hard copies of books and articles.
EBSCO Host-Found at ebscohost.com is a family of research databases divided by subject. These databases are subscription-based and are paid for by the university library, so you can access them anywhere on campus or by inputting your student information when off campus. The EBSCO Host family is divided by subject, so it allows you to search for articles that apply to your major. If you do not know what subject your research falls under there is a general section of databases called ERIC, which is especially helpful for general education classes. Another general database section is known as Academic Search Premier.
CQ Researcher-Found at library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher is something like an online newspaper and peer-reviewed journal combined. It is considered a reputable source by teachers and covers a variety of subjects. The articles on this site are written by professional journalists and contain articles that are cited with other professional sources. CQ Researcher is a good source for reputable sources that are easy to read. Most of the articles are written without too much of the technical jargon that makes peer-reviewed journals hard to read. There is also a ‘browse by subject’ option if you don’t know what to write about and just want to see what topic ideas might be interesting. You can access CQ Researcher for free on campus or with student information off campus.
LexisNexisAcademic-Accessed at lexisnexis.com/us through on campus computers, provides a larger variety of international newspaper articles compiled and translated into English. LexisNexis has a minimalistic style at first glance but is invaluable for any major that deals with international issues, such as sociology. Unlike other online academic sources, LexisNexis allows you to search for TV and radio transcripts as well as blog posts. This means that you will have to be more careful about making sure it is a reputable source. LexisNexis also lets you search for non-English publications in case you need something for a foreign language class.
WorldCat-newfirstsearch.oclc.org is a network of college libraries that have decided to post their collections for other students to access. This is great if you need to find a book or video that is not at any public library or the university library. The good thing about this site is that it allows you to see if the book you want is at a nearby university, like North Park, without having to call the library or drive around town to find a school that carries what you are looking for.
Zoho-Zoho.com is an online planner and document storage site similar to Google’s extended sites, but is formatted closer to the way Microsoft office is formatted. This is especially helpful if you are used to One Note. While on Google you have to make the documents and upload them, Zoho allows you to write the document directly onto the site. This means that you could (theoretically) write your paper on your phone. Another benefit is that it allows you to jump from one section to the other, while saving your progress automatically. This site is still in the beta stages, but people who have used this says that it has been very helpful and convenient to them.