Home - How-To: WRI 140/ AMST101 - LibGuides at University of Southern California

Handouts

1. Search multi-sibject resources to start your research

Use "*" to truncate your keywords and get more results of your keywords;
Use "AND" to connect your keywords in order to narrow down your search and get what you are looking for;
Search within "Abstract", which will help you find what you are looking for;
Always pay attention to "suggested topics" or "subjects", which might give you good search queries;

For instance, "Los Angeles" AND "Natural Disaster*"

"Los Angeles" AND "school fund*"

2. When you have good ideas about your topic, search subject specialized databases (if you need help, please contact Sue or me)

Please kindly contact our data information librarian for more information

Katharin Peter

VKC Library, B40a
213.740.1700
kpeter@usc.edu

Data Research Resources
All resources in finding Data
California & LA data
search data in CA and LA
United States
LexisNexis Statistical Universe
For facts and data of LA

LexisNexis Statistical Universe allows users to search abstracts and tables within statistical publications of federal, state, and intergovernmental agencies and organizations and provides direct access to the full-text tables. [Note: As many government publications are updated annually, be sure to check that your table is from the most current edition.]
American FactFinder
For facts of LA (e.g. population)

Also available on the U.S. Census Bureau website, American FactFinder is an interactive database that provides access to Census statistics about population, housing, industry, and business. Use the "fact sheet" search box to get quick statistics on a city, state or the entire United States or explore the "Get Detailed Data" section for more detailed statistics.

Please kindly contact subject librarian, Sue Tyson, for more related information

Sue Tyson

213-740-7044
styson@usc.edu

ProQuest Research Library
multi-disciplinary index for multi-subject (newspaper, scholarly information)

To find old newspaper articles in LA Times, please
1. get into the Proquest
2. go to "Select multiple databases"
3. "Clear all databases", then go down to the list and find "ProQuest Historical Newspapers Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1986) (ID 14075)"
4. Select this database and click "Continue" (a bright yellow botton)
5. Now you can search for old newspaper articles in LA times
Wilson OmniFile
6 individual full-text databases: Education, General Science, Humanities, Readers’ Guide, Social Sciences, and Wilson Business (please check them before searching). Good for scholarly information