Free Resources to Help You Research Any Topic Like an Academic

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When you’re really interested in a topic and want to learn more, it can be daunting trying to figure out where to start. Even with the digital world at your fingertips, it’s hard to accomplish much if you don’t know where to look. In this blog, I’m going to go over some of my favorite resources, their strengths, and anything else you might need to know.

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I’ve kept this list to free resources because I believe knowledge should be accessible to anyone regardless of their financial status. You will still need a library card to access a few of these resources, but they’re free and your local librarian would be happy to help you sign up for one.

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This collection of resources is written roughly in the order that I use them in. Use them in whatever order makes sense to you, and discard anything that doesn’t fit. I’ve written up a general guideline; the tailoring is up to you.

Jump to a Section of this Blog:

✷ Top/Intro
✷ Wikipedia
✷ Libraries
✷ Librarians
✷ Common Library Digital Resources
✷ EBSCO Explora
✷ EBSCO Research
✷ Libby
✷ JSTOR
✷ Other Places to Look
✷ Project Gutenberg
✷ The Internet Archive
✷ Academia.edu
✷ Marginalia Search
✷ Museum and Institutional Databases
✷ Cold Emails
✷ Slightly Less Ethical Research Tips

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Regardless, let’s get the most controversial resource out of the way first.

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WIKIPEDIA

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This might cause some knee-jerk reactions leftover from teachers insisting that “Wikipedia is not a valid source”, but it’s one of the first places I start when I’m researching. Let me explain. It’s still true that you shouldn’t be citing Wikipedia in your projects (largely because anyone can edit an article as long as it’s not locked). That said, Wikipedia articles are excellent for two specific purposes.

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Firstly, they’re good for giving you a general overview of your topic. A quick read of an article can help you come up with questions and directions to research. Wikipedia might not always be 100% accurate, but the goal here is to dip your toes into your topic and get you thinking.

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The second benefit of starting with Wikipedia is actually my personal favorite. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the article until you get to the “sources” section. There, you’ll find a list of the origins of anything cited in the article. These are generally more reputable sources, and almost always contain more information than was added to the actual Wikipedia article.

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Often, some of these sources will be books or other publications without a link you can click to view them easily. We’ll be going over how to find these sources in the next couple of sections.

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Photo Courtesy of wal_172619 on Pexels

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LIBRARIES

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I know that library research is vastly overshadowed by internet research in this day and age, but its effectiveness cannot be overstated. If you need a specific book that you can’t find anywhere else, I would recommend asking your local librarian for help locating it.

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If the library doesn’t have the book, you can usually do something called an Inter Library Loan. This is a really cool system shared by libraries across the country which allows libraries to share books. If your local library doesn’t have the book but another library does, you can submit a request to have it sent to your local library for you to borrow. This process can take a bit of time, but generally speaking you should get an email when the book arrives and is ready for you.

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LIBRARIANS

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Did you know that most librarians in the US have at least a master’s degree? If you’re stuck on your research, consider asking your local librarian for some assistance. They can be an incredible help, and might even be able to point you in a direction you hadn’t considered previously. They can also assist you with connecting to some of the library’s online resources.

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COMMON LIBRARY DIGITAL RESOURCES:

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The content your library has access to may vary depending on where you are, but I’m going to go over a few of the more common options. You may have to create an account and link your library card to use some of these.

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EBSCO EXPLORA

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If you’re looking for full pdfs of articles, books, journals, magazines, and more, EBSCO is a pretty good resource to check out. There is a robust advanced search function, as well as a way to explore by topic.

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EBSCO Explora is my go-to for magazines in particular. The other types of content are definitely worth taking a look at, but in my opinion some of the resources I’m going to share later are a bit better with them than EBSCO. That said, you never know what you might find! It’s worth spending some time clicking around and doing some searches to familiarize yourself with the platform and how you personally want to utilize it.

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EBSCO RESEARCH

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EBSCO Research is a second database which would most benefit those of you working on particularly academic research. There also appear to be a greater number of full ebooks and journals here, though they can be found in both EBSCO databases. Lastly, EBSCO research has a section for “multimedia assets” which contains images and videos.

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LIBBY

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With your library card, you can get access to ebooks, magazines and audio books on Libby. Through this platform, you can “borrow” the aforementioned content like you would a book in your local library.

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Speaking of your local library, they have to purchase individual “copies” of the digital content they offer through Libby. This means that sometimes you may have to reserve a title and wait until someone returns a “copy”. Like a physical library, you also have a limited amount of time until you have to either “return” or “renew” whatever you’ve checked out.

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Libby has a good range of fiction and nonfiction (depending on your individual library’s stock), so it’s perfect for both research and leisure. There’s also a Libby app available on iOS and Android phones for reading on the go. Lastly, Libby has a function which allows you to request that your library purchases a title they don’t currently have. For detailed instructions on this process, look here.

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JSTOR

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JSTOR is a platform which hosts journals, books, images, and other primary sources. I especially recommend it when you’re on the hunt for primary sources.

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Not every library has access to all the content, but a ton of college libraries in particular do. If your library doesn’t pay for JSTOR, don’t worry! There’s still a vast amount of content that you can access without logging in through your library.

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For research, JSTOR also has a wonderful feature called “Workspace”. If you make an account, this allows you to save and organize the materials you find. I was particularly impressed that it allows you to sort sources into folders here as well.

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OTHER PLACES TO LOOK:

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Aside from libraries, there are a few more really good resources to use in your research projects. Most of these are available for free online.

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PROJECT GUTENBERG

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Project Gutenberg is firmly planted in my usual rotation of resources. This digital library boasts over 75,000 free eBooks that you can download or read online. Of those eBooks, a majority of them are titles for which US Copyright has expired. You can sometimes find still copyrighted sources, but the platform is generally pretty good at removing those to avoid trouble with publishers.

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It’s also worth noting that Project Gutenberg books are usually digitized and added by volunteers. This means that the scan quality can vary, as well as the condition of the book scanned, and the general formatting. Still, I’ve found that the books are usually pretty legible, especially if you’re willing to spend a bit of time with them.

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The Project is really an incredible project contributed to by so many different people, and it’s my go-to for older titles.

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THE INTERNET ARCHIVE

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As per their website, the “Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free texts, movies, software, music, websites, and more.” This website is a huge project which also includes the Wayback Machine and gifcities (the latter less helpful for research but fun nonetheless).

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Anyone with an account can upload content to the archive, so what you find in your searches can vary pretty widely in terms of scan quality, book quality, and sometimes credibility. That said, the Internet Archive itself also scans in around 3,700 books a day across 22 different locations!

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It should go without saying that you could explore the Internet Archive for years and still not run out of things to read. This is super useful when you’re in the source gathering stage of your preliminary research. Like Project Gutenberg, the Archive is especially helpful in finding older (often out of print) titles. I’ve managed to find free scans of rare books retailing in the hundreds of dollars range through the Archive. It really is an irreplaceable resource.

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ACADEMIA.EDU

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Academia.edu is my absolute favorite resource when I’m doing more scholarly research. Here, you’ll find a mixture of articles, journals, and books, a majority of them available for free if you make an account. A lot of the content on the platform is actually posted by the scholars themselves, so there’s an avenue to connect with them if you want to.

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The feature I use the most when doing research here is actually the “Related papers” column that’s on the right side of the page when you open a paper. The search function on Academia works perfectly fine, but the related papers column helps me make more interesting connections across topics.

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The website is a bit annoying sometimes with popups asking you to upgrade to a premium account, but those are easy to close out of. It may seem like you need to be premium to access something when the window blocks your screen, but that’s not usually the case. I’m sure they want you to think that you need premium, though I haven’t yet needed any of the features behind their paywall.

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Oh, that reminds me of a slightly non-intuitive cheat that usually works if an article or journal is paywalled (on Academia or elsewhere) and you just can’t find any way to get full access to it:

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Email the author, explain your project, and ask if they would send you a pdf copy of the content. Most scholars are thrilled to know that someone is interested in their work and are happy to share. They also don’t tend to see much if any profits from sales by their publisher, so you’re not usually depriving them of any monetary gain by doing this.

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I’ve honestly never had an author say no when I’ve tried this method, but of course your mileage may vary. It’s worth noting that I’ve also never tried this with a full book. From what I understand, authors tend to see more money from those sales.

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MARGINALIA SEARCH

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Depending on your age, you might remember when the internet was less centralized and people gathered on a vast variety of websites and forums. You may also fondly remember finding incredibly niche blogs full of information that was shared freely. Did you know some of those websites still exist?

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Marginalia Search is where I go when I’m craving the old internet. It’ll pull newer websites too, but the engine prioritizes non-commercial content. This means your searches will turn up more results by individual people rather than corporations. You’ll likely get a fair amount of websites hosted by Neocities, which is the closest thing to the old internet that’s still kicking around.

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I find Marginalia Search is particularly helpful once you’ve exhausted the relevant results on your usual search engine. If nothing else, it usually provides me with a new thread to follow on some of the other websites and platforms we’ve already been over. The uniqueness of Marginalia’s results is perfect for sparking new ideas.

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Interior view of the MET, painted by Frank Waller in 1881

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MUSEUM AND INSTITUTIONAL DATABASES

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I’ve covered this particular option more in-depth in my blogs “The Best Online Museum Collections for Art Inspiration and Research Outside of Pinterest”, and “Even More Online Museum Collections for Inspiration and Research.” I recommend taking a look at either of them for specific information about individual databases.

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Generally speaking, these databases are a top tier research resource. Many museums and institutions these days have been working to digitize their collections to make them available to the wider public. These are the places that generally house a lot of your primary sources such as artifacts, photographs, and first-hand accounts.

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The main way to locate a database like this starts with knowing what you’re looking for in a broader sense. From there, narrow your scope until you settle on something specific like “I’m looking for a collection of Victorian portrait photography.” The next step is to do some research to see if there’s any museum or archive that houses that kind of resource and has an online collection available.

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If you come across an organization with a collection containing what you’re searching for, but no online database for you to look through, don’t panic! For a lot of museums and institutions, you can find an email to contact with specific research requests.

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The exact process and results will vary from organization to organization, so be prepared to do a bit of reading to figure out specifics. Most of these collections will be managed by librarians passionate about their content. This is in your favor, because it means that a lot of the time these librarians want you to have access. They’re typically pretty excited that someone is interested in the contents of the archive they care for.

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I did this recently, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the archive I contacted had an entire box full of unprocessed/digitized primary sources for a project I was working on. None of its contents are available online, and all it took was a simple email request to get access to such a valuable resource. I’m still waiting for them to retrieve the box from their off-site physical archive for me, but I know it’ll be well worth the wait.

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That’s actually one last thing I should say about this research method— librarians tend to be understaffed and underpaid. Give them time to process your request, and be sure to thank them regardless of whether or not they’re able to help you.

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Image Courtesy of Kampus Production on pexels

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COLD EMAILS

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I know this one probably sounds pretty scary for some of you but bear with me here. If you come across a person or organization knowledgeable about your research topic, consider reaching out via a cold email. Explain your interest in their area of expertise, and ask if they’d be willing to answer a few questions or point you towards some better sources. As with librarians, these people and organizations are more often than not just excited to share information about their passions.

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Of course you won’t always get a response, and you may get one explaining that they can’t help you. This is okay and part of the process. The worst thing they can say to your request is “no”, and if that happens you’re just where you were before. You don’t really lose anything if your cold email isn’t received how you’d like it to be. It might feel “embarrassing” to reach out like this and not have your excitement mirrored in the response you get. I know I’ve felt that way plenty of times. That said, anyone who makes fun of you for your own earnestness is not someone whose opinion you want to listen to, anyways.

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Cold emails are probably the scariest research method in this post, but they can also bring you a vast amount of knowledge that you wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. Talking to other people really can be one of your biggest boons.

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Lucifer by Alice Pike Barney, painted in 1902

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SLIGHTLY LESS ETHICAL RESEARCH TIPS

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Can’t find a book or journal you’re looking for online? Try adding “pdf” to the end of a search with the title of your reference. Adding “Google Drive” to the end instead yields similar results. This can be a last-ditch effort to finding something, and I’ve heard it works rather infrequently. You also have to be careful about which websites you’re trusting to download files from. Use a VPN and/or antivirus program if you have access to one.

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I want to be very clear that this method is just straight up piracy if your source is still under copyright, so be aware of that. Naturally, I have to include a disclaimer here that I’m not saying you should pirate content, but merely presenting you with information you can choose to use or discard.

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I’m not interested in getting into the ethics and discourse around piracy here, but I recommend reading up on the topic if you plan to use this research method. The subreddit r/Piracy is a good place to start if you’re not sure what to look up. Again, the decisions are yours to make in regards to this method. Consider me your gray-area research faerie. I’m here to share information you might find useful and then disappear into a cloud of glitter.

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The End, plate 20, from an unknown publication sometime in the 18th century

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IN CONCLUSION

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This is by no means an exhaustive list of every resource available to you in your research. The sources discussed above are simply the ones that I find myself using the most. Specialized research will generally require specialized sources, but you can usually find those by going through one of the methods/databases already mentioned and narrowing down from there.

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Have a favorite I didn’t mention here? I’d love to check it out! Extra bonus points for resources about extra niche topics. I may even make a follow up to this blog in the future if I happen to find enough new resources.

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Regardless, I hope you have a wonderful day/night/evening, and may your curiosity guide you.

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Until next time.

-Alex

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