Janine Smith
Primary Sources (Newspapers and Contemporary Reporting)
Primary sources contain information and impressions about a contemporary issue, event, or problem -- something that is happening at the same time period as the people writing about it. Your assignment's focus on a problem in current events requires you to learn about the phenomenon that you're interested in as it currently exists. You may also want to consider the history of this problem.
A good general source for this kind of background information about the lead up to the current day situation can be found in encyclopedias, which you can find in the next box below this one.
Look in your SSO tiles for a link to the College of Business' subscription to The Wall Street Journal. (Not accessible through the library website. You will be asked to set up a free account before you can view the newspaper's contents.)
- Access World NewsA full-text collection of over 6700 primarily U.S. newspapers. Source for the New Orleans Advocate and Times-Picayune.
- New Orleans Times-Picayune 1989-presentSearch or browse for full text of the New Orleans daily newspaper, the Times-Picayune. Part of America's News. 1989 to present.
Background Information
Encyclopedias provide a basic summary of a person, place, thing, event, or other concept. While they do not provide cutting edge information about the latest state of a debate, they do establish the most important and commonly agreed on details about a subject. In most cases, encyclopedia entries are brief. Some encyclopedia databases allow you to filter according to the word count of the entries contained in your search results list.
- CredoSearch or browse for facts and information across over 750 full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, quotations, bilingual dictionaries and more.
- Funk & Wagnalls New World EncyclopediaA general-interest encyclopedia with over 25,000 articles on all subjects, some biographical information. Updated annually.
- Gale Virtual Reference LibraryA collection of over 200 reference books (over 600 volumes) in all subject areas published 1990 to present.