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LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative (LHI) Research Guide: Research Basics

Resources on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger

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Why start with background information?

women in burkina faso getting water from a well

 

 

Building resilience against hunger and malnutrition in Burkina Faso. Photo by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid, 2013, under license CC BY-NC-ND

 

 

 

Reading some general information about your topic before formulating your research question or beginning research gives you several benefits:

  • confirms what you already know
  • helps you identify gaps in your knowledge
  • introduces you to vocabulary used around your research topic that can help you state your research question and search for further information
  • provides context for your topic and may suggest various directions you might take your research

You can search specialized encyclopedias and other reference books through our databases such as:

Or you can get started with one of our highlighted reference works below:

How to combine search terms

When searching in the Library's OneSearch or databases for books and articles, you often need to find materials about more than one concept (food traditions of African Americans) or search for various ways of expressing these concepts (food traditions/cooking/cuisine) in order to find more of what's available.

Here's a video tutorial that explains how to do this efficiently using the Boolean connectors AND & OR

How to find topics in ebooks

If the table of contents of an ebook isn't helpful in guiding you to the information you need for your research, you can try two other ways.

First, you can scroll to the end of the table of contents to check if the book has an index. If it does, go to the index to see if your topic is in the alphabetical list of subjects covered in the book. Be sure to try any alternate forms if you don't see what you're looking for at first. For example, if the term SDG4 isn't in the index, try looking in the index for sustainable development goal 4 or education or equitable eduction.

Another method is to use the Search within book feature found in some ebooks. For example, on Proquest Ebook Central, you can choose Read Online and then you'll be able to use the Search within book feature.

screenshot showing search within ebook feature on Ebook Central platform

Get help with your research

Use Ask a Librarian to get research and citation assistance by online chat or email. Or come to the Library, Room E101, to meet with a librarian in-person for assistance.

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