Skip to Main Content

Honors English 12 Documentary Research Project: Home

Welcome

Here are some very useful databases and research tips for your project. Remember, if you need to access any of the databases from home, you will need to refer to the Database Password Sheet. If you have any issues, please contact Ms. Stump (cstump@grantbulldogs.org).

Gale in Context Databases

Within these databases, you can perform a general search in the main search box in the top left corner. You can also click on the lightbulb icon that says "Browse Issues" to get to the large alphabetized list. Once you have found your topic, don't forget you can limit what type of resource to look at (videos, infographics, statistics, or images will provide helpful visuals for your documentary). Remember, you can save anything you find from these databases to your Google Drive; just click on the Drive triangle. Saving to your Drive will also save the citation information. 

National Archives

The National Archives is an amazing collection of so many different resources. Think of this like an online museum. Searching can be a bit overwhelming, so follow these help steps:

1. Search for your topic or issue in the search box

2. On the left sidebar, look for "Refine By: Type of Material" and select which type you would like to start with (if you are looking for visuals, you will want to click either Photographs and Other Graphic Materials, Moving Images, Maps and Charts, etc.. Sound Recordings may also be helpful.

4. After selecting your Material Type, on the top of the search results, you will want to click Available Online. This will filter your results to the ones you can easily access online. 

5. Click on any resource that seems like it would be helpful/interesting. In order to save anything from here, click on the Share option and choose either Copy Link or E-Mail. If you have a video, you may also need to download the video file so you can add it into your presentation.

Newsbank Historic Newspapers

If you want to include articles or images directly from old newspapers, this is a really cool resource from Newsbank. When you are searching for your topics or issues, it is very important to use quotation marks if your topic/issue is multiple words, such as "oil spill" or "air pollution."  To save whatever you find in this database, I recommend emailing the source to yourself by clicking on the envelope. To access the citation information, you will need to click the "c" icon, which is to the left of the envelope icon. Be sure to click on whichever citation style you are using, and then you can copy and paste the citation information.