I am currently studying at North Carolina Agricultural and technical State University. Research has never been a strong suit of mine, but I digress. I need to write a paper on mechanical or Agricultural innovation made by A&T students, staff, or alumni, between 1892 and 1970. When I spoke with library and special collections staff they said that there would be a plethora of material for me write about. I have had an extremely hard time finding information regarding this topic.
Currently I've tried searching relevant words in their library's digital collections. As well as looking for other theses and dissertations on similar topics. I have found none. Any tips on how I can improve my research?
Bibliographical works are usually a good starting point for research. Most universities will have a bibliography of works published by their staff, and a lot of specialized journals also offer similar bibliographical overviews detailing publications in their respective fields. Finding one of these pretty much guarantees a starting point from where you can find researchers that are active in a certain field, or works that give a broad overview on a certain subject. From there you can just follow the trail of footnotes.