General Tips on Using the CU Library Databases
To search for articles in a broad range of academic journals, go the library’s list of general and interdisciplinary databases and search some of those.
I recommend Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, and Google Scholar, but keep in mind that you can’t use these databases unless you’re either on campus or logged into the campus network via VPN*. These databases index articles from a variety of publications, including both academic and non-academic, so you’ll want to limit your searches to scholarly journals. These databases also aim for breadth rather than depth, so they tend to index articles from the top few journals in each discipline rather than all the journals.
* About VPN: The library’s Off Campus Access page explains VPN, or you can simply go to this VPN web site, sign in with your IdentiKey, and then click on the link to the library on the welcome page and go from there.
To find more articles within specific disciplines, use the databases that aim for depth within a particular field rather than breadth across multiple fields. Go to the library’s Find Articles page and click on the plus sign to the left of the discipline you want to investigate. Then click on the link to “Most Useful” (or whatever comes first). That will take you to a page of databases that contain articles from that discipline (and possibly closely related disciplines as well). You can also follow this link to browse through journals that have gender in their title.
Norlin Library Research Center
If you’d like some one-on-one assistance from a librarian with any stage of the research process, stop by the Research Center in Norlin Library, Room E111. The Center is open from 2:00-5:00 on Mondays through Thursdays.
Resources on the CU library’s web site
- Research and Subject Guides
- College Writing and Research Guide
- How do I…? (answers to frequently asked questions)
- How do I determine if a source is scholarly vs. popular?
- How do I evaluate sources?
- How do I cite sources?
- Video Tutorial on Using Web of Science Databases
- Video Tutorial on Using the “Find it at CU” Feature
Video Tutorials on YouTube
I found these with a few quick searches. You can also find a variety of related videos by doing your own searching on YouTube or other video sites.
- Using Academic Search Premier
- Google & Wikipedia vs. ProQuest Research Tools
- Searching JSTOR
- Stop! Thief! Avoiding Plagiarism by Paraphrasing
- Cite a Source: How and Why You Should Do It