Articles and other types of material are available from library databases rich in content. These are accessible to anyone using any of the three campus libraries. Students have access from any computer but must log in.
The key to being a savvy online searcher is to use common search techniques that you can apply to almost any database, including article databases, online catalogs and even commercial search engines.
USE ADVANCED SEARCH WHENEVER POSSIBLE. Almost all databases will offer an advanced search feature which will walk you through the use of many of the tips below.
USE AND to narrow your results. AND tells the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting hits.
Example: Vietnam AND protestors AND college students
USE PHRASE SEARCHING to narrow you results. Phrase searching - putting quotation marks around words that should stay together in a search - causes the words to show up in the results as you expect them to be.
Example: "Tet Offensive" ; "Vietnam veterans" ; "Fall of Saigon"
USE OR to connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms). This will increase you results by telling the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in the resulting records. Notice that you place parentheses around the similar concepts.
Example: (Johnson OR Nixon) AND "foreign policy" AND Vietnam
