Institutional Subscriptions

The Bush School Library pays for students, faculty, and staff of The Bush School to have an individual subscription to The New York Times and The Washington Post. Follow the instructions below to activate your account(s).

New York Times Online Group Pass

Follow this link for instructions to activate your account.

Washington Post Online Group Pass

Follow this link for instructions to activate your account. Please be sure to follow the instructions fully and closely so that your account is activated!

FREE Reliable News Websites

The following are top-ranked news sites that publish trustworthy, credible, reliable content, not fake news stories or disinformation.

Allsides.com

Allsides.com exposes people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum so they can better understand the world — and each other. The AllSides Media Bias Chart™ helps you to easily identify different perspectives and political leanings in online news content so you can get the full picture and think for yourself.

AP (Associated Press)

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting.

BBC News

BBC News is a British free-to-air television news channel run by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

NPR (National Public Radio)

NPR is an independent, nonprofit media organization that was founded on a mission to create a more informed public.

ProPublica

With a team of more than 100 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics including government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration, and technology. ProPublica was the first online news organization to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Reuters

Reuters is an international news organization owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs some 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. The agency was established in London in 1851 by the German-born Paul Reuter.

RumorGuard

RumorGuard is a tool created by the News Literacy Project that allows you to see their recent credibility checks, as well as learn how you can use the 5 Factors and other Techniques to check the credibility of news items.

NOTE: News organizations have been included in the above list based on a cross comparison of a number of analyses of media bias and accuracy including (but not limited to) allsides.com, adfontesmedia.com, and mediabiasfactcheck.com.

Other Ways to Access News

Gale OneFile: News (PW)

Access major U.S. and international newspapers online to search articles instantly by title, headline, date, or other fields.

Newsbank Access World News (PW)

Includes the following collections:

• World

• USA

• USA - Washington

• Seattle Times Collection with historical archives

• America's News Magazines

Newsela (create an account with your bush.edu email address)

Offers a variety of non-fiction readings, with an emphasis on news and journalistic stories across many subjects

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: US Major Dailies (1849-2019) (PW)

Includes the following newspapers: Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post

Seattle Public Library A-Z Online Resources (use your personal SPL account to access)

SPL has many resources for accessing the news, including those listed below. You will need to log in with your personal SPL account.

• Access World News

• Flipster Online Magazine Collection (includes news magazines)

• Online Magazines, Newspapers, and Journals (in the SPL collection)

• PressReader - More than 7,000 magazines and newspapers in more than 60 languages are available in full-page, full-color formats, just as they appear in print.

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1901 - Current) - Search fully digitized editions of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and download and print full-text articles. Depending on the issue date, different formats of articles may be available.

• Seattle Times (1895- Current) - Search fully digitized editions of The Seattle Times, and download and print full-text articles. Depending on the issue date, different formats of articles may be available.

• U.S. Major Dailies (formerly National Newspapers) - Full-text access to five major daily newspapers: Chicago Tribune 1985-current; Los Angeles Times 1985-current; New York Times 1980-current; Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition 1984-current; and Washington Post 1987-current.

• U.S. West Newsstream (formerly Western Newspapers) - Find news and information about Seattle and other Northwest communities in this collection, which includes newspapers from Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

• Washington State Newspapers - Get news from over 130 sources across Washington State including newspapers, broadcast news, and community newspapers.

What is Disinformation? 

• Disinformation (noun): false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

• Social media has exacerbated the impact of disinformation campaigns.

• Fact-checking and media bias rating websites can help you to combat the disinformation you may be exposed to in your daily life.

Fact-Checking Websites

AP Fact Check

The Associated Press (AP) is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business.

FactCheck.org

A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FactCheck.org aims to reduce the level of confusion in U.S. politics by monitoring the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players.

Politifact.com

PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, an independent newspaper in Florida and partner news organizations around the country. A project of the Poynter Institute.

PunditFact

PunditFact is a project of the Poynter Institute, dedicated to checking the accuracy of claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers, political analysts, the hosts and guests of talk shows, and other members of the media.

SciCheck

FactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy.

Media Bias Rating Websites

Allsides.com Media Bias

AllSides empowers you to understand the role media bias plays in the news and information you consume. The AllSides Media Bias Ratings™ and AllSides Media Bias Chart™ help make news bias transparent, allowing you to identify different perspectives and political leanings so you can get the full picture and think for yourself.

Media Bias / Fact Check

An independent website that rates the bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of media sources...MBFC is trusted by major media outlets and IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) fact-checkers, frequently being referenced by sources such as USA Today, Reuters Fact Check, Science Feedback, Washington Post, and NPR.

BrainPOP (Google SSO)

Interactive learning site with content that includes movies, quizzes, games, mobile apps, activity pages. Specific topics are linked in the appropriate subject. 

For Teachers: There is a separate teacher interface available with lesson plans and additional resources.

Cambridge Research (Coming Soon!)

Current, peer-reviewed trustworthy research.

Encyclopedia Britannica (PW)

A general encyclopedia covering all topics.

Europeana

Europeana brings together thousands of European archives, libraries and museums and research to provide access to millions of books, music, artworks and more.

Gale Databases (Microsoft SSO)

A launchpad for all of the Gale Databases, organized by subject area.

• Gale Academic One File (Microsoft SSO)

Access general interest magazines and key serials in a single resource. Articles may be written at a high reading level.

• Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints (Microsoft SSO)

Explore opposing sides of a variety of important issues.

• Gale in Context: US History (Microsoft SSO)

Explore information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history from a variety of sources.

• Gale in Context: World History (Microsoft SSO)

Explore information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in world history from a variety of sources.

• • Gale in Context: Science (Microsoft SSO)

Explore information about hundreds of scientific topics.

Infobase: Issues & Controversies (PW)

Issues & Controversies is a great resource if you are still trying to narrow down your topic to something specific. You can enter your topic into the search field and see what subtopics come up. Pro Tip: Use the menus in the right column to narrow down by American History Era, History Region (Americas/United States), or History Subject.

JSTOR (Google SSO)

Provides full-text articles from academic journals, books, and primary sources.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia (Coming Soon!)

Current, peer-reviewed trustworthy research, read in 30 minutes or less across 26 encyclopedias

PebbleGo Next (PW)

Interactive site for all subjects

ProQuest (Google SSO)

Provides full-text articles from academic journals, books, and primary sources.

• ProQuest Historical Newspapers: US Major Dailies (1849-2019) (Google SSO)

Includes the following newspapers: Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post

Artstor

This link directs you to the public access collections from Artstor Digital Library, a resource that provides straightforward access to curated images from reliable sources that have been rights-cleared for use in education and research — you are free to use them in classroom instruction and handouts, presentations, student assignments, and other noncommercial educational and scholarly activities.

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History

Arranged chronologically from earliest explorations to contemporary time.

American Presidency Project

Hosted at UC Santa Barbara, the American Presidency Project brings together 135,730 Presidential and Non-Presidential Records from the earliest presidents to the present.

Asia for Educators

Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels. 

Avalon Project: Ancient Documents from Yale

Digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government from ancient times.

Black Freedom Struggle in the United States

This website contains approximately 1,600 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom: Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860); The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877); Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932); The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945); The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975); The Contemporary Era (1976-2000).

Black Studies 

This database combines primary and secondary sources, including leading historical Black newspapers, archival documents and collections, key government materials, videos, writings by major Black intellectuals and leaders, scholarly journals, and essays by top scholars in Black Studies. Additionally, Black Studies includes easy to use functionality such as timelines, topic pages, and collection pages.

CIA World Factbook

Provides wide-ranging and hard-to-locate information about the  background, geography, people, government, economy, communications,  transportation, military, and transnational issues for countries from  Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Included among the 271 geographic entries is one for the "World," which incorporates data and other information  summarized where possible from the other 270 country listings.

Civil Rights Digital Library

The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.

David Rumsey Map Collection

The David Rumsey Map Collection from Stanford University focuses on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, globes, wall maps, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from around 1550 to the present. Viewers have access not only to high resolution images of maps that are extensively cataloged, but also to a variety of tools that allow users to compare, analyze, and view items in new and experimental ways.

Densho

Densho documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II, offering irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources.

Digital Public Library of America

Highlights the collections from libraries, archives and museums across the United States.

DOCSteach

Hosted by The National Archives; search thousands of primary source documents.

Documenting the American South

Hosted by UNC Chapel Hill Libraries, DocSouth is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.

Europeana

Europeana brings together thousands of European archives, libraries and museums and research to provide access to millions of books, music, artworks and more.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project from Fordham University 

These sourcebooks offer collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts related to Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies.

Library of Congress Digital Collections 

Primary source material including historical documents, maps, photographs and sound collections from The Library of Congress.

• Library of Congress: Country Studies

  • This collection contains electronic versions of eighty books originally sponsored by the U.S. Army and written by researchers affiliated with the Library’s Federal Research Division. Intended for a general audience, the studies provide descriptions and analyses of lesser-known countries or regions where U.S. military forces might be deployed.

• Law Library of Congress

  • The Law Library subscribes to a broad range of databases and eResources that provide legal and legislative information for the U.S. and around the globe. While some databases are available only On-site in a Library of Congress Reading Room, others are Open Access (look for "Free Access" in the Availability column).

National Archives

Includes founding documents, archived presidential websites, and other collections.

Project Gutenberg

Choose among free epub books, free kindle books, and many audio books. Download them or read them online. 

World History Encyclopedia 

Covers an array of historical topics and narratives through text, video, interactive features, social media and mobile apps.

Below are excellent free resources to use with students, including full lesson and unit plans. Some of these organizations may require you to create an account to view content, but creating an account is free and will allow you to get updates (if you want) that could be helpful in the future. Be sure to choose your grade level whenever possible, to get lessons specifically for your students' age level.

Online Resources

Facing History & Ourselves: Voting Rights in the United States

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: Voting Rights

iCivics: Elections & Voting Curriculum

• Bonus: Integrates with Google Classroom!

• Feature Lesson: Voting Rights Lesson Plan & Voting Rights History

Learning for Justice: The True History of Voting Rights

• Featured Section: Lessons: Voter Suppression

National Constitution Center: Classroom Resources about Voting Rights

PBS Learning Media: To Vote or Not to Vote | We The Voters

WA State Legislature: Lesson Activity: Who Gets to Vote?

Zinn Education Project: Teach the Struggle for Voting Rights

Search Engines

Search engines search webpages for a specified word or words and provide a list of webpages in which they are found. Google and Bing are the most popular search engines.

Search Tips

Limit your search to domains that are considered to be more reliable by adding the phrase site:gov OR site:edu to your search term(s). This will limit your results to the domain .gov websites (published by the U.S. government) and the domain .edu websites (published by educational institutions in the U.S.). Note: be aware that universities may allow their faculty and students to use their .edu domain to create personal websites. If there is a tilde (~) in the address, it may be a personal faculty or student page that is not monitored by the institution. 

Also note that information residing in the .gov domain, while still generally reliable, may be incomplete if it is a webpage that was published by a prior presidential administration. For all webpages, look for messaging at the either the top or the bottom of the webpage that provides information of the currency of a webpage.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an online search engine that specifically searches scholarly literature and academic resources. The scholarly, authoritative focus of Google Scholar distinguishes it from other search engines.

Search Tips

Just because you see something in Google Scholar does not mean that you are able to access it. Most scholarly literature and academic resources are blocked by paywalls set up by publishers who require you to pay to access these resources. However, you may be able to get access to the resources you find through the institutional subscriptions available to you, such as Gale, JSTOR, and ProQuest. Use the links to these databases that are provided in the other sections of this guide, such as General and Interdisciplinary Resources, to search for the titles of the articles you find in Google Scholar. If you need help getting access to a resource you find in Google Scholar, just ask your school librarian - we know how to use interlibrary loans and other tricks of the librarian trade to get access to just about any scholarship or literature!

The CRAAP Test

Use the CRAAP Test to Evaluate Websites

CRAAP = Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.

Currency: the timeliness of the information

• When was the information published or posted?

• Has the information been revised or updated?

• Is the information current or out-of-date for your topic?

• Are the links functional?   

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

• Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?

• Who is the intended audience?

• Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?

• Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?

• Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper?

Authority: the source of the information

• Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?

• Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?

• What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?

• What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?

• Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address?

• Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?

  •  examples:

    • .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .gov (U.S. government)

    • .org (nonprofit organization), or

    • .net (network)

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content

• Where does the information come from?

• Is the information supported by evidence?

• Has the information been reviewed or refereed?

• Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?

• Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion?

• Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors?

Purpose: the reason the information exists

• What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?

• Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?

• Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda?

• Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?

• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?

The CRAAP Test was developed by Sarah Blakeslee and her colleagues at Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.

Style Guides

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

The Purdue OWL has a wealth of resources for the major style guides (APA, Chicago, MLA).

• They also have excellent resources for using citation generators responsibly.

Notetaking or Citation Software

NoodleTools 

The Bush School provides NoodleTools accounts for all students & faculty. Use NoodleTools to create an outline, organize your research, and properly cite sources. Create your account using the Microsoft 365 login option and remember to use this login option each time you login.

• In order to use the citation export option that is integrated into our subscription databases, you need to first be logged in to NoodleTools.

• Be sure to check out the Noodle Tools Knowledge Base to learn how to create a Project, an Outline, and Notecards, as well as the many other features available.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Scribbr: Avoid Plagiarism Playlist

The first four videos in this YouTube Playlist will help you to understand plagiarism and how to avoid it through careful use of quotes and paraphrasing. Note: Scribbr is a for-profit company and these videos include advertisements for their products. My recommendation that you watch their high-quality videos to learn about plagiarism does not mean that you need to use their products.