As you begin, narrow your topic to a size that you can manage.  Consider keywords that will help you find the information you need. These can be names of people, events, or broader identifying terms.  Use these keywords for locating information in the library catalog, electronic databases, and on the internet.

Apply online for a library card.   Use your card to 1) Place a Hold on a book  2) Access databases from home. The catalog is online at librarycatalog.nhmccd.edu/.

Online books are available at www.netlibrary.com/. You will need your bar code for login to create an account.

Electronic databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. To find articles in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs and more, use your updated library card to login to the following databases. If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the correct bibliographic information to our and they will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information - and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact you if they need to.

The Internet will be a wonderful source of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggest below. Remember, you do want to find reputable sites. Look at:

1. Accuracy
2. Source - Look at the domain.  .edu   .gov   .org  .net are valid research sources.
3. Authority - What are the author's credentials?  (Don't quote from another college freshman's paper.)
4. Coverage - Does the page have the information you need for your research?
5. Objectivity - If a work is biased, use it - just make sure your professor knows YOU know. And offer both sides of issues, where applicable.

UNACCEPTABLE SOURCE SAMPLE 
http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh/bx/bx04b.html - This appears to be part of a book, but there is nothing we can see that tells you title, author, dates, publisher or any of the other needed information.