Do you have one great resource, but you need to find more? You can use citation mining to find similar sources and learn about a scholarly conversation surrounding a certain topic.
Going Backwards in Time
Check the source's bibliography/references/works cited to see which resources the author used to write this source.
You can see if we have access to these sources by copying and pasting the title of the source into Snowden Super Search. If we do not have immediate access to the source, you can always request it through Interlibrary Loan here for free.
Going Forwards in Time
You can see who has cited a source using Google Scholar. Copy and paste the title of your source into Google Scholar. You can click on the "Cited by xxx" link to view all of the sources listed in this database that have cited this source. You can also click on the "Related articles" link to view just that.
Sources that have been cited hundreds or even thousands of times by other experts will most likely be the most prominent literature concerning that topic. You'll want to pay attention to these popular sources in academia, as well as authors' names that you continually see while you research a topic. You can conduct an author search in the library's databases or Google Scholar to see if this author has written anything else on this topic that may be useful to you.
Are you writing a research paper, but you aren't sure where to store all of your citations? A citation manager can help you store PDFs of your sources with the click of a button, create bibliographies from your library of sources, and even integrate into Microsoft Word to help you cite while you write.
Zotero
Zotero is a great option for seniors who are writing their capstone papers or any student writing a paper using more than five sources. To access Zotero, go to Zotero.org and click "Log in" to create a free account.
You can either use Zotero online or download their free software to add sources and PDFs to your library. Zotero offers a Zotero Connector to add citations to your library with the click of a button (if you have the software downloaded and open), and it also offers a Microsoft Word plugin so that you can add a reference from your library to your paper with the click of a button (Zotero formats the citation for you!).
You can contact Ariane Breton at breton@lycoming.edu if you have any questions concerning Zotero.