Getting started with in-depth research

I like to begin most in-depth research projects with a visit to WorldCat to see if I can find the Subject Headings that are used to define my topic. I do this by:

1. using general keyword searches until I find a book that is loosely on my topic.
2. I click on that book.
3. I click show more details on the results page. 
4. I click on show more under the subjects.
5. I then open the subjects that best match my topic.
6. You can also copy the exact phrasing of the subject and combine them!

Examples

Funeral practices in the 19th century

• Death Social aspects
• Funeral rites and ceremonies United States History
• 1800-1899

Involuntary Sterilization and Mental Hospitals

• Eugenics United States Law and legislation
• Involuntary sterilization Law and legislation United States
• Sterilization, Involuntary history

Garbage Collection

• Refuse Collection
• Salt Lake City (Utah)
• Sanitation Workers

Brick Manufacturing

• Salt Lake Pressed Brick Company
• Brickmaking

Ladies' Library Association

• Ladies' Library Association
• Women in charitable work

Ogden Arsenal

• Ogden Arsenal

King Tutankhamen

• Tutankhamen, King of Egypt

Rock Climbing 

• Rock climbing 
• Bouldering

Next Steps

Once I've found some books to support my research, I move on to find either journal articles or primary sources (it depends on the topic).

Favorite Journal Archives

If I can't find journal articles:

I use Semantic Scholar, Semantic Scholar does a fairly good job of linking citations (connecting the articles that cite each other) on historical topics. It doesn't really filter out results... This is where you go to either: find information on a poorly covered topic, citation mine, citation chain.

• Semantic Scholar

Finding Archival Sources

I use the following techniques to find archival sources:

• Source references in books and archives.
• Archive Grid
• Digital Public Library of America
• Jstor (it does contain some historical resources)