Skip to Main Content

Humanities

The guide offers a one-stop-shop for Humanities resources. Specific topic/course pages provide links to course readings, supplementary book lists, timelines and databases containing primary and secondary sources.

Choose A Topic


When choosing a topic to research it can be helpful to look through recent journals or encyclopedias in your field of study. This may help spark ideas or pique your interest! 

For argumentative papers, or current controversial issues try one of the databases below:

Explore some of these sites for more ideas on choosing a topic. 

Use Keywords & Boolean Logic


Library databases don't search using full sentences. Instead, they use keywords and boolean logic.

Your best bet is to use keywords to search to get the results you are looking for.


What is a keyword?

Keywords are the essential words in your research question that focus on the main concepts you are interested in.

Other filler words are non-essential to the search process.

EXAMPLE

The keywords are highlighted and bracketed in the research question below:

Research question: What is the connection between [race] and [police brutality]?

Keywords: your keywords and key phrases are then "race" and "police brutality"


What is Boolean Logic?

Boolean logic is a system that shows relationships between sets of keywords, terms, or subjects by using the words AND, OR, and NOT. In library databases, we use these terms to specify exactly what we are looking for when we perform a search.

The term Boolean comes from the name of the man who invented this system, George Boole.
 

Connecting Words with Boolean Logic

Using connecting words like AND, OR, & NOT can help you find what you are looking for. 

  • AND: use AND to connect terms when more than one keyword or phrase is needed
    • race AND police brutality
  • OR: use OR to search for synonyms and related terms
    • race OR ethnicity OR racism OR minorities
    • police brutality OR excessive force OR police shootings
  • NOT: use NOT to exclude terms that are unwanted
    • police brutality NOT riots
  • "  ": Use quotation marks "your phrase" around phrases to get exact results
    • "use of force"
    • "officer-involved shooting"

Learn more about keywords and other search techniques with this guide from UCLA: Search Techniques

Research Consultations


For in-depth help, book a research consultation appointment with a librarian.
Schedule an appointment using the appointment calendar below, or email any librarian directly to make an appointment.

What kinds of things can a Librarian help you with?

We can help you:

  • Find articles on a topic
  • Evaluate sources
  • Find reliable websites
  • Develop a research question
  • Start a literature review
  • Make an annotated bibliography
  • Find statistics  
  • Format citations

Or Email Your Question Directly