Musician Research Resources

• Explora - Scholarly database. Access encyclopedia articles, journal and newspaper articles, and media related to your topic.
  💡 To open a result, click "Read more," "Access options," or "Access now."
  📝 Create a citation: In any article or media, click the quotation marks button at the top right ❝ and change the Style dropdown to MLA.

• Britannica School - Encyclopedia articles, videos, images, and primary source documents.
  💡 Not sure who to research? From the home page, scroll down to EXPLORE and click Biographies. Use the filters to find interesting individuals.
  💡 The link defaults to middle school.  To access the high school level, click on the Britannica School logo and select High. Try the same searches. The high school level has articles on more topics, and more information in the articles.
  📝 Create a citation: For any article, image, video, or other media, look for the checkbox to create a citation to copy. ☑    

• Sweet Search - A search tool (like Google) that only searches sources on the internet that are approved by teachers and librarians.
  💡 Watch out for sponsored results! If they paid to be on top, they might have a motive other than providing accurate information. (Amazon, for example, wants to get you to spend money.)
  💡 This is an internet search which means you should still use caution with results. Use your thinking brain to determine if it's a good source to use.
  Is the source authoritative? (Do we respect their expertise on the topic?)
  Is the source credible and unbiased? (Do we trust them to be accurate and not have another motive besides informing you?)
  Is the source up-to-date? (Look for clues that the information has been updated recently)
  📝 Create a citation: From any web page - NOT the results page - click the MyBib Chrome extension and make sure MLA is selected.

• Wikipedia - A free online resource that is written and maintained by members of the public.
  ❗ WARNING! Information could be inaccurate. Do not trust blindly. Use your thinking brain to verify it by checking against other sources.
  💡 Practice doing citation research. Notice the footnote numbers that link to the author's bibliography. Click one to jump to the citation for the source of that fact. You can click on the source to go there and read for yourself. Use your thinking brain to determine if that is a good source for the author to have used.
  Is the source authoritative? (Do we respect their expertise on the topic?)
  Is the source credible and unbiased? (Do we trust them to be accurate and not have another motive besides informing you?)
  Is the source up-to-date? (Look for clues that the information has been updated recently)
  💡 It is much better to cite a reliable source used by the author of the Wikipedia article than to cite the Wikipedia article itself.
  📝 Create a citation: From any web page - preferably one of the author's sources, not the Wikipedia article - click the MyBib Chrome extension and make sure MLA is selected.