Ask A Librarian

GETTING STARTED

You will start at the library's homepage. https://www.saddleback.edu/library

On the library's homepage click the Article Databases link in the red menu on the right . Then, select a database that makes sense for your topic. 

If you are not sure of your topic or which database to use, start with ProQuest Research Library. It covers a wide range of topics and is easy to use. You may find ProQuest Research Library under the letter P.

When you click on the database name, you will be prompted to login. Use your student username and password (like Canvas).

BASIC DATABASE SEARCHING

Inside the database, enter your search terms in the search box and hit return.

Start with basic terms for a broad topic, such as Climate Change, then add additional terms as needed. For example, you could narrow your search to Climate Change Solutions. 

Make sure the FULL TEXT box is checked! That tells the database only to give you articles you need.

You may want to add other limiters, like Peer Reviewed for academic articles, or a date range for publication. Sometimes, you may need to limit language to English. In many databases, search limiters are located in a menu on the left side.

Once you have a list of articles that look like they match your topic, start clicking on titles to see what the article is really about. Look at the abstract or skim the article.

Make sure to save anything that looks like it might be useful, so you may quickly keep moving forward in your search. An easy way to save articles is by emailing them to yourself. You may also save the citation!

USE MORE THAN ONE DATABASE

ProQuest has a mix of academic, magazine and newspaper articles, but you should try at least one more database! The following list of other databases  available to you.

• CQ Researcher – issue reports and background information
• JSTOR – scholarly articles and book reviews
• Psychology & Behavioral Sciences – psychology topics
• Academic Search Complete – general purpose like ProQuest
• Kanopy – streaming video
• ERIC – education topics