Social Sciences: Home

This page provides tips for choosing the best resources to assist with your social sciences research.

How To Find the Information You Need.

Broad Searches If you want to see large amounts of information - books, journal articles, DVDs and more - and you don’t mind looking at a few things that you might not need, use RTC's OneSearch.

Try OneSearch Now:

Focused Searches  When you know exactly what you need.

• If you need journal articles, click on the Articles tab, and learn about ProQuest, CINAHL, and other databases.
• If you need books, click on the Books tab, and learn how to find books in the RTC Library Catalog, or eBooks in RTC databases.
• If you need web resources, click on the subject tabs above (Sociology, US History). They list helpful popular web sites.

Not Finding What You Want?

• Try another way of describing your topic.  Instead of "car" try "automobile". Instead of "movie" try "motion picture".

• Think about the age of the material you need.
  • If you are researching something that is a established fact, try books or encyclopedias (found in the RTC Catalog), or eBooks (found in Credo Reference or the Community College eBook collection through the RTC Library Database page). Examples of established facts include "early history of Seattle", or "theories of Emile Durkheim".
  • If you are researching something new, like "the latest trends in sociology", try journal and newspaper articles (found in ProQuest on the database page.)

Need More Help?

If you're not sure what you need, or how to begin, come in to the RTC Library, call us at (425) 235-2331, or email us at librarian@RTC.edu. If it's after hours, try our reference chat service AskWA.  We'll be glad to help!