Find Sources for Current Events/Informational Research
The library databases in this list are helpful for finding topic overviews - general introductions with background information about a topic. Topic overviews can help give you perspective on the history of the issue and generate keywords and subtopics.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
(CQ Press) Full-text, balanced, comprehensive journalistic reports and analysis of current and controversial issues of the day.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
(Credo) Includes materials from over 650 full-text reference books on a variety of topics in higher education, including art, business, history, languages, literature, science, criminal justice, and political science.
- Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
(Facts on File) Full-text articles from different points of view on important issues in today's news, plus statistics and images
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration to marijuana. Content includes viewpoints, reference articles, infographics, news, images, video, audio, and more. A category on the National Debate Topic provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Periodical content covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.
- College (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Offers interdisciplinary content that reinforces the development of skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Learners can access news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more. Empower learning with hundreds of thousands of images, videos, and audio selections that include archival film clips, broadcast video, BBC News, New York Times video, and NPR.
- Environmental Studies (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Gale In Context: Environmental Studies provides users with comprehensive information regarding today’s environmental issues, empowering learners to critically analyze and understand important topics that affect people around the world. The database is updated daily with relevant content integrating case studies, news, reference materials, academic journals, videos, and more on subjects such as climate change, food security, soil ecology, and tourism. ReadSpeaker and on-demand article translation accommodates diverse backgrounds. Citation tools for formatting into MLA, APA, and Chicago style are integrated directly into the user’s workflow and can be easily imported from single or multiple documents to services like EasyBib or NoodleTools.
- Biography (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Profiles figures from all time periods and areas of study. Includes biographies, videos, audio selections, images, primary sources, and magazine and journal articles from hundreds of major periodicals and newspapers. Search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender, as well as by keyword and full text.
- American History This link opens in a new window
(Infobase) Provides topic pages and overviews for historical events, daily life in different eras, historical controversies, and multimedia supplements as well as primary sources. Covers the colonial/revolutionary period and forward.
The library databases in this list are helpful for finding both current and historical newspaper articles.
- Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
(EBSCO) Selected full-text from 30 US national and international newspapers and 200 regional papers, plus TV & radio news transcripts.
- Proquest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
(ProQuest) Over 30 million digital pages of seventeen American newspapers dating back to the 18th century.
- U.S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
(ProQuest) Full text from the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and the New York Times.
- News (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Gale OneFile: News is a full-text newspaper resource providing access to major U.S. regional, local, and national newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.
Magazine and journal articles usually provide more details about a topic. Journal articles are written by experts or specialists in a field and may report the findings of new studies on a topic.
- MasterFILE Complete This link opens in a new window
(EBSCO) Offers the highest quality collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books, videos and other sources covering virtually every subject area. Helping patrons find relevant content has never been easier. (High school/pre-college).
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
(EBSCO) A scholarly multi-disciplinary database that provides full text, indexing, and abstracts, videos and images from journals, magazines and newspapers. Full text of articles from 6500+ journals, magazines and newspapers, plus image collections.
- Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Gale Academic OneFile, provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources and covers everything from art and literature to economics and the sciences. Also included are thousands of podcasts and videos.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
(Ithaka Harbors) Includes full-text back issues of selected peer-reviewed journals in such areas as history, statistics, sociology, literature, and economics.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
(Johns Hopkins University Press) Full-text articles from "over 300 high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals."
Streaming video databases often contain video clips and full documentaries with in-depth investigations or alternate perspectives on current events topics.
- Academic Video Online: Premium This link opens in a new window
(Alexander Street Press) Full-length videos on various topics, documentaries, instructional materials and limited historical news reports.
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
(Films Media Group) High-quality, educational streaming video from companies such as Films for the Humanities, BBC, and PBS. Browse a selection of Business & Economics videos.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window
(Kanopy) Classic cinema, independent films, and top documentaries in streaming video. Includes Media Education Foundation Collection. App available from Apple, Google, and Roku.
Books can be great sources of in-depth information and details about a topic. You can read eBooks 24/7 and take advantage of the automatic citation and download features in these databases.
- Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
(ProQuest) Over 100,000 ebook titles covering a full range of academic topics. General reference works are also included. Read on your mobile device using Adobe Digital Editions.
- eBook Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
(EBSCO) Search complete electronic books. Set up a free account to download to your device. Visit EBSCO's instructions on how to read on a mobile device using Adobe Digital Editions.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
(GALE) Gale eBooks offers broad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business and other subjects. Optimized for search and discovery, the Gale eBooks platform enables you to search through multiple nonfiction eBooks within a single search.
The websites in this list are librarian-approved for up-to-date and reliable information about current events.
- Brookings Institution Topics
Research topics covering foreign policy, economics, policy, and more, from The Brookings Institution, an independent, nonprofit public research organization.
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Frontline
PBS Frontline offers in-depth discussion of controversial issues in films, podcasts, and long-form journalism. -
Gallup News
Find public opinion polls and information on a range of current issues affecting the U.S. and the world. - Pew Research Center
Reports and data on public opinionin the United States relating to politics, media, social trends, religion, and more.
Off-Campus Library Database Access
For off-campus access to the library databases, you will need to sign in with your MyLoneStar email address and password or enter your 14-digit library barcode from the back of your LSC student ID card.
Don't have a 14-digit library barcode? Request one online. Your library barcode will be emailed to your LSC email address within 48 hours.
Intro to Research
- Intro to ResearchUse KEYWORDS and BOOLEAN SEARCHING to improve your search results in the research databases. Using the boolean operators AND, OR, & NOT will make you a more successful researcher.
