“World History Paper
Pathfinder”

Search Strategy:
Choose either Stage 1 or 2 depending upon whether you have chosen a topic for your paper.

Stage 1
You Do Not Have a Topic

1. Browse through the books and Internet sites listed below for topic ideas. Photocopy appropriate pages from the books that interest you.

R909.016 Sha Sharp, Harold S. Footnotes to World History .
R909 D922 Duncan, Joseph (Ed.) Handbook of World History Concepts & Ideas.
909.81 E93 Thackeray, Frank W. (Ed.) Events that Changed the World in the Nineteenth Century .
909.82 E93 Thackeray, Frank W. (Ed.) Events That Changed the World in the Twentieth Century.
909.82 H673 History Behind the Headlines: the Origin of Conflicts Worldwide

Stage 2
You Have a Research Paper Topic

1. Underline the key words of your topic. Write down several synonyms or alternate search terms that describe your topic.
Example:
Vietnam War
Vietnam Conflict

2. Go to the Upper School Library Home page and click on Britannica. Type the key words you underlined into the Britannica search box.
Example: Vietnam War
Read the first article that appears. Notice the hyperlinks in the article. Click on ones that interest you and make note of them. You will use these hyperlinked search words to help narrow your search of other databases and the library online catalog.
Example: France, Ho Chi Minh, Geneva Accords, South Vietnam, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Viet Cong, Ngo Dinh Diem

3. Click on Back. Set the Britannica search button to search Britannica's Internet Guide . Print out the results and save it for later.

4. Click on the Library Online Catalog . In the key word search box, type in your broadest keyword search term.
Example: keyword = Vietnam War
If you retrieve more than 5 titles, choose one of Britannica's hyperlinked key words that interested you and type it on the second key word search line. Click and place a black dot by the word and.
Example:
Broad Search =
Vietnam War
Narrower search =
Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh
Vietnam and France.

5. Check out all of the non-fiction books that have information about both of your search terms. Request St. Albans books by filling out the courier sheet by the computers.

6. Click on Eagle Eyes NCS Web Library . Click on the category History . Click on the History sub-category that matches your topic to see if there are relevant Internet sites.

REALITY CHECK

You should have the following information by now:

•  Britannica Overview of your topic.

•  List of Recommended Internet Sites

•  All relevant books from the NCS and St. Albans Libraries

Stage 3

1. Look at the Indexes and Table of Contents of all of the books you have checked out. Write down the numbers of relevant pages. Photocopy them. Remember to record the correct bibliographic information from each book that you photocopy.

2. Narrow your topic to a paper that will be approximately 7-10 pages in length.
Example:
Broad Topic - Vietnam
Less Broad - Vietnam War
Narrower - Vietnam War and Ho Chi Minh
Narrowest - The Role of Ho Chi Minh in the Vietnam War

3. Go to the NCS Upper School Library Home Page . Underline the keywords in the title of your paper and enter the keywords in the following NCS electronic Resources:
Ebsco's Host (Remember to click the box for full text articles.)
SIRS (Full text database)

4. Perform a specific search in Google using phrase searching and the plus (+) sign.
Example:
“Ho Chi Minh” +”Vietnam War”
“Ho Chi Minh” +Vietnam

5. Begin reading all of your photocopied materials in preparation for outlining your paper. Make notecards or write notes in the margins of the relevant pages as you read them.

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