ENG 111 - Famous Trials: 6. Keywords & Searching Sources

Sometimes these trials can be difficult to search for. Information about them can be found by searching the victim's name, the defendants' name(s), and very often by a nickname the trial is often known by (for example, the Scottsboro Boys Trial or the Lindbergh Baby Trial). You should try all of these ways of searching for information, especially if you're not finding enough sources. However, be careful when you're searching the trial names - sometimes less is more, and often including the word 'trial' limits your search results drastically.

For instance, here are three different searches in EBSCO eBook Collection.

Scottsboro Boys Trial - 1 results
Scottsboro Boys - 8 results, but they don't look that good.
Scottsboro - 20 results, and they look like better results.

Here's another example:

Samuel Sheppard Trial - 3 results
Sam Sheppard Trial - 1 result, looks relevant.
Sam Sheppard - 17 results, all look pretty good.

Also keep in mind some trials have a lot more information written about them than others. McMartin Preschool is one that may be hard to find enough information on, so be sure to do a little looking before you commit to a trial.

Keywords work best by trial-and-error. Never do only one search. Some keywords will work better than others, and some keywords may lead you to different articles than you found in your first search. Search the databases with the keywords you selected to find relevant articles.

And remember to ask a librarian if you need assistance coming up with keywords or looking for sources. Contact information for the library is in the Library Info tab in the box to the right, or you can use the Library Chat.