Doing the Research Develop your bibliography systematically. It contains advice, descriptions of the most useful indexes, and a list of the economics journals in our collection. In the library, consult the subject file of the card catalog. The best index of scholarly articles for most paper topics is the Journal of Economic Literature, which has an excellent subject classification system. Ask a librarian for advice, and consider requesting a search of the computerized indexes by the librarians.
Textbooks are often another good source of useful references.
Find one or several recently published articles or books on your topic and find cross references in them. When you enter the stacks to locate a reference, browse the surrounding shelves for potentially useful sources. Ultimately you will not have time to use all relevant materials, but a thorough search will enable you to find the sources most useful to you. Take notes as you read. White 4 x 6 inch cards lined on one side are good.