Questions to ask yourself for inspiration:
1. What issues and ideas do you care about?
2. Do you have a community you have a special connection to?
3. Is there something that's been sparking your interest lately?
4. What kinds of things do you like to learn about?
What are keywords and search terms?
Search terms and keywords are what we call the words that you use to help find sources related to your topic.
Why is this important?
Keywords are very important for library databases. Popular search engines are great at finding similar words and phrases automatically - library databases, not so much. So they'll need a little more work with the keywords you're searching to find what you're looking for.
How?
Here are a few resources I recommend for finding keywords:
1. Brainstorming. If you can think of other words or phrases that you think might work, try them out! I recommend writing them down as you think of them to help keep track.
2. Search terms or keywords on databases. If you've already searched something, try looking at the tags that the database gives it. You might be surprised how helpful they can be.
3. Thesaurus. A classic way to get synonyms for words and terms, this is a great resource for words that mean something similar or identical to the ones that you've tried. You can use free thesauri (plural for thesaurus) online, and we also have official thesauri through Oakton.