Using sources in research. Advanced Search-ProQuest

In class we learned ways to come up with sources when researching. Basically, you have your general question, which is what you are trying to base your research on. Then you have your sources, which are what you use to find specific information on the subject you are researching.  
I chose my question to be... Given the fact that Haiti has experienced numerous Earthquakes in the past, why weren't all or at least most of their structures earthquake-proof? Using ProQuest Advanced Search, I would then come up with sources I would need to find out about. For example, I would type into the search: devastating earthquakes in Haiti and limit the dates from 1850-2009. I would put the latest as the last month of 2009 so that I could avoid information on the current earthquake that happened in 2010, I would go only as far back as 1850 because in my opinion, buildings constructed before 1850 would not count as buildings that would be influenced by the environment since standardized earthquake proof structures were not developed until much later.

Haiti does not have any kind of standardized construction requirements that must be followed so what this source proved to me after I searched it was that with all the previous earthquakes they have had, even if in the late 1900’s the country was not economically stable or able to make standardized building plans or requirements that had to be followed in construction, once they entered the twenty first century, an effort to begin making buildings safer should have been made. This effort should have been made at least for important buildings such as the main jail and presidential palace that collapsed during the 2010 earthquake because their foundations were not strong enough to withhold the earthquake’s impact or aftershocks. The effort should have had included at least some kind of remodeling that followed safety building code that made them more stable and capable of withstand stronger earthquakes.

Another source that would help me find more information on the topic question I chose would be to search the annual percentage of houses and buildings that collapse after a natural disaster. When I entered the search, I came out with many different sources to look at but none seemed to give me exactly what I wanted. From this, I would have to either think of another way of phrasing it or another source to search OR, reading as much as I could take notes on things somewhat relevant to what I was looking for and summarize it to come out with something else that was not necessarily what I wanted at first but that could be just as useful.

I think that when doing research, one must keep an open mind. You must have an idea of what you want to learn about but be ready to change and begin to gather different information if what you wanted was something that you either could not find due to lack of searching skills or lack of information on it recorded.