Research Guides: English 231: Young Adult Literature: Investigating your Cases

Searching Newspapers

Much about your case will be reported in local newspapers and popular magazines. Here's how you find them:

U.S. Newsstream
News content from many national and international newspapers, newswires and selected news magazines.
Access World News
Contains diverse global, local, regional, and national newspapers, newswires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, videos, periodicals, and web-only content.
Includes electronic access to the Charlotte Observer (1886-present), in addition to many local North Carolina newspapers.
Nexis Uni
Coverage of news and current events, government, business, medical, and legal topics, as well as general reference information is included.

Use is restricted to current faculty and staff and currently-enrolled students of Davidson College only.
ProQuest Research Tools
Multidisciplinary collection of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, e-books, dissertations, and more. Search includes all of the Davidson College Library ProQuest databases.

Looking for a specific publication?

Search for a journal, newspaper, or magazine title in our Journal Finder resource!

Searching Websites

You might find useful information on school board websites or organizational pages.

To search these sites thoroughly, try using Google's search in site feature. Your search might look like this:

school board minutes site:http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/

Or use Google's Advanced Search

Demographics and Data

Want to get a sense of the shared values of the community your case involves?
Start with some data sources:

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

ICPSR is an archive of behavioral and social science data; most datasets are raw, primary data drawn from surveys, censuses, and administrative records.

To download datasets you must set up an account using your Davidson email. Davidson is a member of ICPSR; use of the data is restricted to Davidson students, faculty and staff engaged in non-commercial research projects.

Social Explorer
Generate demographic reports and tables using data from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey, and various Religious Surveys.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Includes surveys, demographic information, and other types of religious research conducted in the United States and internationally.
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)
Gathers surveys and reigion from various sources and provides information on church membership and religious groups

Other Sources of Information

You might be able to get information directly from stakeholders involved in your case.

Consider who might be interested in your case, such as Parents, School Administrators, Librarians, Organizations, Students

Keep your eye out for places stakeholders may have expressed their thoughts on your case, like blogs or opinion sections in newspapers.

Alternatively, you might contact a stakeholder directly. However, if you want to contact someone involved in the case, make sure to talk to Dr. Campbell first

In the past, your fellow students have:

Got in touch with a school librarian, who had personal knowledge of the case and had been collecting news items tracking its development
Had an email discussion with the person who challenged the book, which provided unique perspective on the case