Subject Librarian
Get in Touch: If you have questions about research or finding good articles, please email me!
Getting Started
I have collected several overview and background articles that I think would be helpful. Definitely consider if you are looking at poverty more broadly or if you are narrowing your focus to just one aspect, such as payday loans or affordable housing or poverty wages.
- Poverty from Opposing ViewpointsGet an overview article, as well as Viewpoints (argumentative essays) and also news and magazines.
- Federal Minimum Wage - from Issues & ControversiesPro/con arguments on whether Congress should raise the minimum wage. From 2021.
- Universal Basic Income - from Issues & ControversiesPro/con arguments on whether the government should guarantee a minimum income. From 2019.
- Food Stamps - from Issues & ControversiesPro/con arguments on adding more restrictions to the Food Stamp program. From 2020.
- Poverty Coverage - from VoxCoverage of poverty in America, including which policies help reduce it, and why it's so hard to achieve economic mobility.
- Poverty In America - Book Chapter from American History OnlineOverview history of how America has grappled with poverty since its founding.
- War on Poverty - from American History OnlineCovers history and context for Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty from 1962-1980.
Search More in Databases
If the articles above weren't helpful or if you want to do more searching, use the databases below. Pay attention to the date and source (publisher) of your article and mostly stick to major news outlets.
- Opposing Viewpoints In Context This link opens in a new windowContains overviews and pro/con essays on current controversial issues. Also includes recent newspaper, magazine, and journal articles.
- Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new windowExplore hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Presented in a balanced, pro/con format, each article presents the key facts, arguments, history, and current context - a great starting point for research.
- Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowGeneral database good for all subject areas. Contains newspaper, magazine and scholarly journal articles.
- ProQuest Central This link opens in a new windowThe largest single periodical resource available, bringing together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities.
3. Data & Statistics
Below are some sites to find data & statistics and a pre-formatted Google search. Searching in Google for [site:.gov payday loans and data] gives you just government sites with data on that topic. Substitute a different topic for payday loans to find statistics on other issues.
- Tips on using Statistics in your Research PaperHelpful info on using statistics to make your argument as strong as possible.
- US Data & StatisticsGovernment website with demographic, population and economic data.
- Pew Research CenterIndependent fact center that does original research on issues facing the world.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowContains statistical data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas. Easy to download graphs and charts for powerpoint presentations.