First Year Students' Guide to UW Libraries

Some key terms to help you get started with finding resources

Databases:

• Organize library resources by grouping similar information together and you can search databases using keywords 
• For example, a psychology related database organizes psychology journal articles and other materials

QuickSearch:

• QuickSearch is UW Libraries main way to search (98%) for the items in our collection
• You can find books, scholarly articles, newspapers, and much more by using the filters on the left-hand side of the search results

Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles:

• Written by academic experts in a specific field and their work is reviewed by other experts before its published
• Usually contain an abstract, introduction, methodology (how the research was conducted), conclusion, and references used by the authors

Popular sources:

• Written by journalists or others with knowledge on a specific topics
• Could be a magazine, newspaper, trade magazine, professional organization publication, or other online media source

Reference sources:

• Written by academic experts who provide background information and/or basic information on a topic
• These are often called "tertiary sources" as they combine information from primary sources and secondary sources to present a short introduction to a topic or provide basic facts

Other sources you may use:

• You may need to use government documents, statistics, primary sources (like historical documents), or images
• These can be found in library resources or online through Google or another search engine

What is a primary source?

A primary source is an item like a diary, map, data, first-person event account, or anything else that provides a perspective from the time it was created.

• For example, you could review a letter from an immigrant to Laramie in 1900 to understand their perspective on moving to the city and adapting to Wyoming. 

What is a secondary source?

A secondary source is an item like a peer-reviewed journal or anything that analyzes primary sources. A secondary source usually pulls together information from other secondary sources as well as primary sources.

• For example, you could find a peer-reviewed journal article on the impact of a certain group's culture on a city. It is likely to include information the author gathered from primary sources as well as other scholars who focus on the same topic.

You can search these general databases to find information on a variety of topics:

You can use the tabs on the side of the page to find databases in your specific subject area, too!

General reference sources:

You can find newspaper articles in a variety of ways:

• The UW Libraries subscribe to a number of print editions of state, national, and international newspapers in order to provide information on current news events, as well as a resource for investigating on the reporting of historical events at the time the events occurred.
• If you want information on accessing historical newspapers, the guide titled Historical Newspapers provides all the necessary information about physical and digital collections at UW.
• The best starting point for finding any newspaper are the ProQuest databases. These databases are organized geographically, such as U.S. Newsstream, Asia Newstream, European Newstream, and all other major geographical regions.
• See the complete listing of all newspaper databases at this link.