This research guide will show you how to find and use library tools. You will see videos on how to find articles and sources for your class assignments, guides to help you with your Works Cited pages, and access to drop-in tutoring assistance from the Eng
Search the library catalog, and databases, all with one search. What will you find?
Finding Articles in OneSearch... in 3 minutes!
Permalinks in Library Databases
How to Access the Databases
Search Term TIps
Consider synonyms or similar terms when choosing search terms. For example, in addition to searching for articles on "college education" also add "higher education" to your search terms list.
If you are searching for a topic that is often abbreviated or is an acronym, like "AI", also search for the complete term, "artificial intelligence".
As you look at articles, collect new keywords to add as your search terms. When looking for "homelessness", if you see "food and housing insecurity" or "unhoused" showing up a lot, add "housing insecurity" and/or "unhoused" to your search terms.
Only put in one or two keywords when doing your search. For example, if you want to write about programs for homeless college students, try entering "programs", "homelessness" and "college students".
You can group a few words together as a phrase, and put in quotation marks, like "college students".
When looking for an article on a specific geographic area, enter the name of the town or city in the search box, like "Long Beach".
To save you some time, try using a truncation search strategy. To do this, you enter the root of a search term, and replace the ending with an asterisk* The database will return all forms of that word. For example: child* will retrieve child, childs, children, childrens, childhood.
If you are researching a topic that is associated with a product or brand, also add the brand name to your search terms. For example, if you are researching "Social Media", consider searching for a specific brand name like "Facebook", Twitter,"Instagram", or "Tiktok".
Where to find Scholarly Articles in our Library Databases
