ITT: resources and tips about navigating the Internet and researching topicsFeel free to post your own resources and tips too.I'm going to post a lot of my own that I have gathered over the years.
I ask that random chit-chat in this thread is kept to a minimum except regarding technical questions & answers on the topic matter.
This is so that resources are kept as compact as possible, and so, readable.
First I'll dump resources and tips for
researching various topics.Note: I don't even have access to or use some of these myself (e.g. LexisNexis which seems to be pay-to-use), but I figure they could be helpful in some narrow cases. I use most of these myself. If the initial things I post don't interest you, keep reading anyway. I'm going to be dumping a lot of content.
PressReaderhttps://www.pressreader.com/Find key terms in newspapers and magazines.
I would say this is more helpful for finding sources that do exist rather than for reading them, per se. You can try to read the articles elsewhere than PressReader if you know their titles or part of their body text. The site appears to brand itself as pay-to-use, however you can use the search tool anyway and even read some resulting articles.
e.g.
https://www.pressreader.com/search?query=FacebookNexis newspaper databasehttps://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/professional/nexis/nexis.pagehttps://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/professional/nexis/nexis-features.pageI can't speak much about it because I have not used it. I learned it existed because of a mention in a FAIR.org article. It's apparently a searchable database of newspapers similar to the above-mentioned PressReader. So I can't vouch for it (plus it's pay-to-use). But it's worth a mention. It seemed like at least one university system uses it.
Chronicling AmericaLibrary of Congress project that lets you search some historical American newspapers. By no means is it an archive of *all* historical newspaper content.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/The Wikipedia LibraryThis is a list of various resources compiled or provided by the Wikipedia Library, which is a system aiming to help the site's editors gain better access to sources. Some of this requires you to be an active editor on the site to access, some of it doesn't.
A. https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/Their main program, which provides access to partnered pay-walled content for active Wikipedia editors.
B. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Find_sources'Find sources', for finding sources in the first place. Useful for non-editors, too.
C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Find_your_source'Find your source', for finding a source you already know about but can't access. Just a general advice page, much of it you don't need to be an editor to exploit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Find_your_sourceOne editor's misplaced advice supplementing C.
D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RDWikipedia's reference desk. You don't need to be an active editor to ask questions here. You might also try /marx/ (see later planned entry about /marx/ for best info).
E. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Find_your_librarySome advice from WPL about finding a library with a source you are seeking (like a book).
F. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library/Free_resourcesFree resources list. Compilation of resources on a plethora of topics usable by non-editors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Unreferenced_articles/ResourcesSupplement.
G. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_English_newspaper_sourcesProject Gutenberghttps://www.gutenberg.org/Free e-book library.
The Internet Archivehttps://archive.org/Also a free e-book library. Has video and audio too. Make an account and you can freely check out e-books as though it were a physical library.
Google stuffA. Google's "Talk to Books"
https://books.google.com/talktobooks/Enter natural queries, get related books.
Related projects:
https://research.google.com/semanticexperiences/Broadly, but rarely helpful.
B. Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/I recommend unchecking "include citations" on the side, will save you a lot of asshurt.
C. Google Newspapers
https://news.google.com/newspapersI have no idea why this isn't visible from the main Google search area.
D. Google Books
https://www.google.com/search?q="INSERT+TEXT+HERE"&tbm=bks
E. Programmable Google search engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Syced/Wikipedia_Reference_SearchThis was programmed to find Wikipedia references but it should be broadly useful.
F. Tips to improve your Google search effectiveness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPw4PSsi55Ahttps://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/20-tips-use-google-search-efficiently.htmlcont.