Skip to Main Content

IS 201: Cities as Incubators of Diversity (Lorenz)

What to search?

Your questions are big ones, and you will not be able to find one article that answers all pieces of your question at once. If you can find that article, you likely aren't digging deep enough into your inquiry.

Before you start looking for evidence, break your question into multiple topics or keywords, and research each piece at a time. Once you've exhausted that line of research, start looking for connections between those topics and research at those intersections. Your goal is to pull together multiple pieces of this inquiry puzzle to draw some conclusions of your own.

For example, let's pretend my big question is, "how does moving around as a child impact their future adult self's sense of belonging and participation in their adult community?" I start by pulling it apart.

  • impact of moving on children
  • sense of belonging
  • community belonging
  • participation in community

As I do that research and I learn more, my search terms might shift or grow. As I research the above, I might learn new phrases that inform my search process

  • residential moving
  • relocation
  • social capital
  • socialization

From here, I might start piecing some of them together

  • "social capital" AND socialization
  • relocation AND "sense of belonging" AND children

Remember, an inquiry isn't finding the one answer, it's piecing together a variety of lines of thinking to start making sense of a difficult question.

Reach out anytime for help!

Finding Information

Article Searching

In IS 201 we encourage students to continue building on the searching skills they developed in IS 101. Remember, both ProQuest Central and OneSearch provide a variety of types of articles. Use the limiters on the side to narrow your search to the type of source that fulfills your particular information need. For example, if I am looking for current articles on a particular city's needs, I might narrow my search to newspaper articles from that area and only return the last five years' results. On the other hand, if I'm more interested in how scholars analyze gentrification and its effect on diversity over time, I might be more interested in journal articles from the past two decades.

For this project, you'll want a variety of sources from a variety of perspectives! You are a detective. An inquiry project allows space for you to learn from the resources you find and refine your searching and argument as you go.

Video Searching

Vogel Library subscribes to a video database called Academic Video Online (AVON). There are amazing full-length documentaries and news programs that can be a great way of learning about your topic in a different mode. These videos also include transcripts, however, if you prefer to read the content than watch it.

Newspapers from around the world

ProQuest Central offers access to many different newspaper types from a variety of areas. If you want to find even more journalist perspectives, you might want to play around in Newspaper Source Plus. In addition to newspapers and magazines, it contains news and radio transcripts.

Vogel Library, Wartburg College   |   100 Wartburg Blvd, Waverly, IA, 50677 |   Phone: 319-352-8500   | Email: asklibrarian@wartburg.edu