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ENG 151&152 / PLT 155 Community & Local Research: Home

Library Catalog

Use the MCC Library Catalog to find out what physical and electronic resources the Library has available. Enter your search below to get started!

Off-Campus Access to Databases

To access any database in this Research Guide from off campus, you will need your myMCC login. If you need to reset your password, go to the myMCC login page and click on Password Reset/Find Username.

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Library Summer
Semester Hours

Monday, May 16 - Friday, August 12

Monday through Thursday,

8:00am to 6:00pm

Friday,

8:00am to 4:30pm

MCC Closed

Fridays from June 3 to July 29

Memorial Day – Monday, May 30

Juneteenth – Monday, June 20

Independence Day – Monday, July 4

Starting Your Community Research

Researching local and community issues may be challenging. Just because you know of a local issue, that does not mean that there is scholarly research readily available on it. You will likely have to use local newspapers or other local periodicals (Chicago Tribune, Northwest Herald, etc.), or interviews, etc. for specifics on recent and very local topics.

For more scholarly sources, consider researching the broader topic (and your sub-points/arguments) for background and other examples of your topic in different communities. How has the problem been managed elsewhere? What causes and effects have been researched? What pieces of that can be applied to the local situation? Once you have a understanding of the larger topic you can apply that research back to the local issue, developing conclusions and suggestions based on the research you have found.

As always leave yourself plenty of time for research and be sure to seek the assistance of a reference librarian if you need more help!

Suggested Titles

Reference eBooks

These databases consist of reference eBooks, which are useful for background information on your topic.

Articles & More

The databases below are good for finding articles on your topic.  Other databases may be useful for your topic as well, depending on the topic!  For example, research on local organic farming may begin with a look at articles in local newspapers with Newspaper Source.