LibGuides: Indiana History: Developing Keywords

Reference Databases (Background Resources)

Credo Academic Core This link opens in a new window
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Formerly Credo General Reference. Credo Reference is an online,cross searchable, full text suite of of encyclopedias, dictionaries, guides, companions, atlases, chronologies, Who's whos, and other reference resources.
Biography Reference Center This link opens in a new window
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Biography Reference Center offers a comprehensive collection of more than 460,000 full-text biographies, including the complete full-text run of Biography Today and Biography, as well as thousands of narrative biographies that are not available in other databases.
Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
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New name: Gale eBooks. Virtual Reference Library electronically provides complete encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs and more in many areas of study. Categories include arts, biography, business, education, environment, general reference, history, information and publishing, law, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, nation and world, religion, science, social science, and technology.
Virtual Reference Library electronically provides complete encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs and more in many areas of study.

Tips for Developing Keywords

Keywords are search terms that you will use when conducting research online. These are essential concepts or ideas. The following tips may help you get started with generating keywords.

Start conducting some background research on a potential topic of interest
Utilize reference databases and encyclopedias to gain basic knowledge on a subject
- EX: CREDO Academic Core and Gale Virtual Library are great reference databases to start with
Draft a rough research question (your question will develop as you conduct more research)
Identify and pull essential keywords from this question (look for key concepts in your question)
Identify potential synonyms
Identify related research areas like databases, history centers, etc.
- See these listed databases or these research centers for additional help
Conduct preliminary research using your pulled keywords
Revise your search and re/search

CREDO - Mind Mapping

Screenshot depicts CREDO's Mind Mapping technology to help find associated keywords. Using Mind Mapping can help you find related topics and information when you are early in the research process.

Credo Academic Core This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Formerly Credo General Reference. Credo Reference is an online,cross searchable, full text suite of of encyclopedias, dictionaries, guides, companions, atlases, chronologies, Who's whos, and other reference resources.