On February 16, 2018, I met with the International Studies research librarian Clement Ho for thirty minutes, seeking guidance on how I can maximize my database searches. I explained how I was researching burden-sharing discourse among European Union countries, surrounding the Syrian Refugee Crisis, and I asked him where I could access this discourse and achieve the most exposure. He showed me the subject guides and databases, recommending I look at Scopus by searching leaders and shar* (for share or sharing). We found an article called “More or less Europe? The European leaders’ discourses on the refugees crisis,” which I plan on reading to expand my knowledge on this topic.

While I know that leaders do use the specific words “burden-sharing,” I understand that the discourse can manifest in other ways, such as responsibility sharing. Mr. Ho pointed out that leaders will frame their discourse depending on audiences; for example, a leader may address a newspaper differently than internal officials. He recommended I remain aware of the audience as I read the discourses. In addition, he helped indicate where I could find primary sources, and he showed me a database I had not used before called Factavia. To avoid having only translated documents, Mr. Ho showed me how to remove the language setting, and we concluded our meeting by creating a set of search words I can use to obtain primary sources and discover where the focus of the burden-sharing discourse is and choose which countries will be part of my discourse analysis.