The library's Quick Topic Search (on the library homepage) will return a number of different kinds of resources including academic (peer reviewed) journal articles, newspaper articles, and magazine articles. It can be a great place to start your research. However, the Quick Topic Search does not cover all of Langara's databases. Additionally, it is highly multidisciplinary, so it may also return a number of irrelevant results. Sometimes, it may be necessary for you to search in individual scholarly databases to find the most relevant research.
When searching in databases, you may have to try many different search terms in order to find the kinds of articles you want. Many databases aren't as smart as Google - they may not be able to determine what you mean or look for words that mean the same thing. Brainstorm a list of search terms around your topic and try them in different combinations.
In their advanced search options, databases will give you different search bars to help you break your topic into meaningful chunks. They will also let you search for only specific kinds of resources (for example, peer reviewed articles) to cut down on your search time.
