Microsoft Encarta Reference Library XP 2003 appears to have received a four star rating. Its current price is about $98. It is an online encyclopedia.
The Questia website is designed to help students write research papers. Its promotion page states that “it will help you create professor-approved citations and bibliographies.” You can save highlights, notes, and bookmarks. Its layout provides convenient project organization folders. It boasts six million books and articles, 70,000 full text online books, and 1700 reliable sources. The site offers a free tour and a free one-day trial. I didn’t investigate the pricing of its service.
Lastly, there is a way to use the resources of the Library of Congress online. I haven’t done this myself because I have made several trips to Washington to use the Library of Congress which requires you to get a pass. Naturally, books can’t be checked out there, so you must be prepared to copy your materials, which can be costly. The use of their online resources would be advisable. When all else fails, I would say they are the library of the last resort.
I should also add that the New York Public Library can help you find the source for almost any missing fact or event. Their phone number is: 912-275-6975.
The next two posts on this topic deal with organization of your sources, an extremely important part of your research. As your topic broadens you will have to arrange your work so that you can find materials which fit the circumstances of your plot and characters, your setting, the events peculiar to your time period, and the issues involved. Different time periods will demand a variety of source material.
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