Use the words below to search for useful information in books including eBooks and articles at the MJC Library.
To access eBooks if you're off campus, you'll need to log in using your MJC student ID (without the W) and your six-digit birth date.
Doing some background reading at the beginning of your research helps you understand your topic right from the start. You'll be able to put your topic in context and create research questions that will drive your search for information to support the points you want to make. In addition, when you begin hunting and gathering information, you’ll know if what you’re finding is relevant and useful.
The list of sources for background reading below provide broad topic overviews to help you understand and place your topic in context.
All of these resources are free for MJC students, faculty, & staff. If you're working from off campus, you'll need to sign in just like you do for your email or Canvas. |
Use this database for preliminary reading as you start your research. You'll learn about your topic by reading authoritative topic overviews on a wide variety of subjects.
Use this database when you want to explore your topic from a global perspective or to analyze and understand the most important issues of the modern world with a global awareness. You'll find news, global viewpoints, reference materials, country information, primary source documents, videos, statistics, and more.
Why search here? Use this database when you want to find comprehensive, unbiased reporting and analysis to get background information on issues in the news.
What's included: Overview reports of topics related to health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy in America.
Now that you've completed your background reading and have an idea of the points you want to make, you'll use the resources below to help you explore your topic further and to answer your research questions.
All of these resources are free for MJC students, faculty, & staff. If you're working from off campus, you'll need to sign in just like you do for your email or Canvas. |
Why search here? Search 22 databases at the same time that cover almost any topic you need to research at MJC. This is a good resource to use when you want to delve deeper into your subject.
What's included: EBSCO databases include articles previously published in academic journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other media outlets.
This is a great database to use when you want to explore different viewpoints on controversial or hot-button issues. It includes reports on more than 800 hot topics in business, politics, government, education, and popular culture. Use the search or browse topics by subject or A to Z.
Why search here? Use Access World News when you need to find current news stories. It's especially useful for local and California news. This is your source for The Modesto Bee from January 1989 to the present.
What's included: Articles from of local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers as well as full-text content of key international sources. It includes in-depth special reports and hot topics from around the country.
Watch this short video to learn how to find The Modesto Bee.
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In addition, search Google Scholar to find scholarly information on the Web.
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These videos come from an MJC Library Database named, Films on Demand. Once you click the image, you'll need to login just like you do for all of our other databases.
Women in American Politics
This program with Bill Moyers looks at the rising number of women on the political scene and their impressions of politics. Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, former Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin, Senator Carol Moseley Braun, and other female politicians talk about the challenges women candidates face, describe their experiences in male bastions of power, why it’s important for women to participate in politics, and what women bring to governing our nation.
Women in World Politics
This program begins with suffragette scenes and quickly moves to portray some of the outstanding women politicians of the 20th centuryThis program begins with suffragette scenes and quickly moves to portray some of the outstanding women politicians of the 20th century.
Fighting the System
This program introduces several young (and many female) environmental activists offering a genuine insight into their beliefs and reasons why so many are choosing this way of life, sometimes with serious consequences.
TEDTalks: Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer—The Toxic Baby?
A biologist and a filmmaker explore the effects of chemicals on unborn children.
Women, Water, and 10,000 Miles
This is the story of the women who live in the most arid part of Rajasthan, India, where the annual rainfall varies from 4 to 16 inches—and the entire rainfall of the year may fall on a single day. In India, water management is solely a woman's occupation. From the time girls are able to walk, they learn that it is their job to find and get water for the entire household. In a woman's lifetime, she will have walked more than 10,000 miles to get water.