Find Focused Information

Next Steps

After getting some background on your topic, we'll be ready to dive into more specific, narrow information.

Books

Find online and print books through Quick Search.

Good For: In-depth information on a narrow topic. Chapters on a narrow topic.

Multi-Subject Library Databases

Examples: Academic Search Complete, Research Library

Good For: Finding news, popular magazine articles, and scholarly articles.

Quick Tip: Match your database to the subject area of your topic or your class. Consider what type of experts are writing about your topic.

Multi-Subject Databases for English Research

Use these databases to get started. These are both multi-subject databases, which means that they include popular and scholarly sources from many different subject areas. For example, in these multi-subject databases, you can find articles from fields like psychology, education, computer science, and more.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Find newspaper, magazine, trade, and scholarly articles covering a wide range of popular academic subjects.
Research Library This link opens in a new window
Find articles covering a wide range of popular academic subjects.

Video Lesson: What are Databases and Why You Need Them?

Video by Yavapai College Library

Specialized Databases for English Course Research

Use these databases to dig even further into the scholarship on your topic.

Controversial Issues Databases

Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Find the pro/con viewpoints to controversial topics.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Find background information and analysis of social issues and controversial topics.

Newspaper Databases

US Major Newspapers & US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Find news articles from New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and publications in the US Newsstream collection.
Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window
Find news articles in U.S. national and regional newspapers as well as international newspapers.

Regional Newspapers

The Olympian
Search Olympia area news and history. Coverage from 2014 – present.
The JOLT News
The Journal of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater provides local news coverage.
Works in Progress
A progressive newspaper that has served the Olympia and Thurston County, WA area for over 20 years.
The Seattle Times Collection
Search Seattle area news and history. Coverage from 1997 – present.
The News Tribune
Find Tacoma area news and history. Coverage from 2014-present.
Washington Digital Newspapers
Washington Digital Newspapers brings together over 600,000 pages from Washington’s earliest Territorial newspapers to the present day. Freely accessible to the public, this growing collection complements the Washington State Library’s physical collection of more than 6,500 newspaper titles.
Wikipedia: List of Newspapers published in Washington State
A list of newspapers published in Washington State.

Washington State Information

Washington State Data Book This link opens in a new window
Published every two years by the Office of Financial Management, the Data Book contains eleven major sections: Population, Economy, State Government Finance, Human Services, Criminal Justice, Education, Natural Resources, Environment, Energy, Transportation, and Local Government.
Washington State Library's Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
Digital collections on Washington State history.
Washington State Office of Financial Management This link opens in a new window
Data and research on a variety of issues related to the state budget, public policy and demographics. Topics include the economy, labor force, criminal justice, health care, and education.

Regional Libraries

Use these libraries, in person or online, to get even more access to our local news sources. Additionally, the public library has other collections that may be helpful, like the zine collection, and the State Library has some of the best historical information related to our region and our state.

Timberland Regional Library

The public library for our region. Borrow materials from any branch in the system. Many databases with excellent coverage of local newspapers and popular magazines. Many branches in the Olympia area have extensive collections of self-published zines.

logo of Washington State Library Washington State Library

Located in Tumwater, the Washington State Library is a great resource for local research.

Library Research Guides

English Research Guide - Professor Ito

Next Steps