Mat-Su College: Writing

A few sections of Writing 111 require students to do research on local topics. If you're in one of those sections, or if your paper involves local issues, this part of the LibGuide could be useful for you.

Here are a few databases or websites that will have Alaska-specific information:

• Access World News's Alaska Newspapers collection. Full coverage, for many years, from 28 Alaska newspapers.
• Dissertations and Theses Global. A database of over a million masters and doctoral theses and dissertations. Some of these -- typically written by students at UAA or UAF -- will even have a strong Alaska focus.
• UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research. The University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research (UAA ISER) has published many reports on Alaska. ISER is a useful source for high-quality studies of Alaska. To search ISER, Click the "Publications" link, then enter your search terms on the search bar.
• State of Alaska website. The search bar at the top of the page lets you quickly search all state government websites.

Researching Alaska issues can be tricky. National magazines or scholarly journals rarely focus on Alaska; even fewer will have articles on the Mat-Su Valley. (Academic Search Premier, with millions of articles, shows only 28 results for the search "Mat-Su.") But don't give up -- it's okay!

Consider a topic like opioid abuse in the Mat-Su Valley.

Part of the topic can be addressed with information about opioid abuse in general. A magazine or journal article might talk about the chemical causes of opioid addiction, treatment methods, or effects. It doesn't matter if these articles are written about Washington, or Florida, or Denmark. Much of what they say will apply to opioid abuse in Alaska.

All that remains, then, is to find some information specific to Alaska.