I've been given a narrow research topic...where do I start?
First, identify two or three key terms that describe your topic. For example, if you are writing a paper on the stress experienced by college students, your key terms might be stress and students. Think of some synonyms for your key terms. These words come in handy when you need to broaden your search to get more results. A synonym for stress is anxiety while a synonym for students is freshmen.
The library catalogue and databases do not require that you use “and” to separate your search words. Simply enter your key terms into the search box. For the above first example, you would enter stress students into the search box.