MC 202: American Racial Ideologies

Secondary sources are materials which provide an interpretation, analysis or discussion of information originally presented elsewhere. This is in contrast to primary materials which provide first-hand evidence. What counts as a secondary source depends heavily on the topic you are writing about and the discipline you are working within.

Scholarly articles are a common type of secondary source:

• These are written by experts and scholars, and reviewed by other scholars in the same field (peer review)
• They are published in journals which usually are focused on one topic (example: American Studies is a journal focused on American culture)
• They provide in-depth analysis on a specific topic (often quite narrow!)
• They can be used to help you build an argument in a research paper

General Databases

By Topic

Use this box to look for additional databases by subject. You can also use the A-Z database list to browse.

If you want to search for a book on your topic, click on Books & Media on the library's homepage (lib.msu.edu). You have a few options here.

1. Basic Keyword Search (the default)

• Good for one keyword
• Good for basic browsing

2. Advanced Search

• Good for multiple keywords, for title + author, or for subject term searching
• Can limit by item type, publication dates, languages, etc

3. Title Search

• Go here if you know the title of the book

4. Author Search

• Go here if you want to see all the works we have by a specific author