FROM GOOGLE TO THE UNIVERSITY'S CATALOG
Searching Google is a familiar activity for students. Google uses a computational language called Natural Language Processing (NLP) that allows its search engine to understand or approximate answers to people's searches.
People talk to Google, and Google understands
HOWEVER
Natural Language Processing does not support university catalogs or databases. We must use a different language when looking for information in the university's library catalog or databases.
USING NOUNS
Unless you are looking for a known item (a search where you know the title), using nouns related to your topic of interest should give you a few good results.
Go to the Library's catalog and try some searches: https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/
Look at these examples:
Haitian folklore AND zombie AND root* OR origin
Zombie AND colonialism
Imperialistic hegemony AND voodoo zombie
Zombie AND orientalism
Zombie AND racism
Zombie AND globalism OR capitalism
American occupation AND Haiti
Eighteenth-century AND slave rebellion
Haiti AND war independence AND living death
Slavery AND Slave Rebellion
Haitian Zombis
Zombie AND oppression
Cross-cultural appropriations AND Caribbean tradition
Now try some searches in JSTOR
The Internet is a good place to find background information. Background information will help you in the initial steps of your research process. For example, the Encyclopedia Britannica has an entry for Haiti, covering its land, the people, the economy, the government and society, the cultural life, and the history. This content provides a background for understanding essential components of Haitian socio-cultural features.
If you search with the domain extension .edu, you should also find some background information of interest. See, for example, The University of Miami Digital Collection's The Haitian Revolution or Brown University's Remember Haiti - Race & Slavery. Here, you can use the search terms: haitian slavery.edu or other search terms related to your topic.
