The present teachings are generally directed to methods for normalizing at least one species of small nucleic acid that is present in a population of small nucleic acid species, wherein the relative concentration of at least one small nucleic acid species is substantially greater than the relative concentration of at least one other small nucleic acid species in the population. At least one small nucleic acid species is normalized using a multiplicity of primers comprising degenerate sequences. In some embodiments, a small nucleic acid species is identified by inserting at least part of an extension product from a normalized population into a vector and subsequently sequencing the insert. In some embodiments, a small nucleic acid species is identified by determining the sequence of at least part of an extension product.