Assignment | Serial Killer Research (Sawyerr): Find Your Sources

Library Access to News & Reference Info

Websites

There are certainly news articles accessible through Google, of course (though with our databases you don't have to worry so much about paywalls and monthly limits). Some tips for targeting your search:

• Try searching the site of the killer's local newspapers (where they committed their crimes and/or were being tried, and maybe their hometown paper).
• Search for court documents from the trial (assuming the killer was caught). Just "court documents [killer name]" will get you started. The case will probably be named something like Killer v. US or State.
• The FBI probably has at least some info for US-based killers! You can search their site (or government sites more generally) by appending site:fbi.gov or just site:.gov to your Google search.

Digging Deeper       As you ask the WHY questions on this topic you will want to dig deeper into the psycho-social aspects of your topic. What do the subject experts, the researchers, and the scholars say? 

Scholarly sources and credible sources can be found in these collections. Articles from journals are usually scholarly. Articles from newspapers and magazines are examined for credibility. Some of the database collections allow you to limit for scholarly articles. 

E-Book Sampler:

Access 100+ databases organized by subject area from the Research Databases page. Also try our dynamic, sortable database list!

To access the databases  from off-campus, you will have the choice of entering your LSC email/password OR your 14-digit library barcode number.

Use the C R A A P Test
to test the validity of your sources.

Ask, what is the...

... of this source?