RESEARCHING A COMMUNITY AGENCY
United Way of York County Partner Agencies – 34 partner agencies receive grants from The Community Fund for their programs. Click on the agency name for information about services provided.
Databases
CQ Researcher
Reports on “hot issues” in society
Opposing Viewpoints in Context
Essays and articles for current events
You can find limited information about Our Daily Bread in the York newspapers using:
Access World News (NewsBank)
This database contains electronic editions of local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers as well as full-text content of key international sources.
Try searching Academic Search Complete using the phrase “soup kitchen” to find magazine, newspaper, and journal articles. You’ll find articles such as “Living on the Edge: Examination of People Attending Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens.”
Websites
USDA Food and Nutrition Service
USDA: See the sections on Food and Nutrition
Feeding America
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank
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FINDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Scholarship is a conversation between scholars and scientists. As an inexperienced researcher, you may find it difficult to makes meaningful contributions to this conversation. Finding reliable background information can help you:
- Learn what questions have already been asked. Getting up to speed on the conversation can be daunting, so finding productive ways to enter it is an important step.
- Discover the language experts use to talk about the subject. Research within in specific discipline is often discussed using a specialized/technical language. You need to be aware of that language to efficiently and effectively search library resources.
- Uncover key concepts, people, and/or events. If the investigation of one idea proves unproductive, these elements may provide you with additional avenues of inquiry.
Entries in the encyclopedias in the Gale Virtual Reference Library or the Credo Academic Core Collection provide an excellent overview for most concepts. You will usually find references or suggested books and articles for further reading at the end of the articles. Use these suggestions for additional sources of information on your topic.
A NOTE ABOUT WIKIPEDIA: If you’re stuck, it never hurts to check it for inspiration. You may discover a ton of useful information. But it should never be used as a final source. Any information you use is corroborated in a source with a known reputation.
LOCATING ARTICLES
Many instructors require students to use scholarly (academic), peer-reviewed journal articles for college research papers. However, students often don’t know where to find these articles and aren’t even sure what a scholarly article looks like.
The chart from the Periodicals and Journals Research Guide outlines the differences between scholarly journals, trade publications, and popular magazines.
The more you use these types of sources, the easier it becomes to recognize the common structure they share. Take a look “Components of a Research Article” for an overview of this structure.
Below are a few of the most commonly used databases, but make sure to check the Subject Guide for your major (or intended major) to know the recommended databases for your field.
- Academic Search Complete is a user-friendly database containing articles from most disciplines.
- ProQuest (Multiple Databases) – By choosing the Multiple Databases option for ProQuest, you are able to access several useful databases, such as ABI/Inform,ProQuest Education Journals, and ProQuest Research Library, at the same time.
You may need to use the Get It! link to access the full text of some articles.
CITING YOUR EVIDENCE
Refer to Penn State York’s MLA 8th Edition Quick Reference (April 2010) for guidelines and examples for citing sources.
Make sure there is a citation in the reference list for every in-text citation you use!