MONT 199G-S12: Art and Labor / Democracy at Work (Storr / Barzachka)

Newspaper and Magazine Databases

The Library subscribes to many databases that provide access to newspapers and magazines, from historical publications to current publications. To see a list of newspaper and magazine databases, visit the A-Z Database List. Click on the "Types" dropdown menu and select "Newspapers & Magazines," then click search. The list will filter to show all newspaper and magazine databases, with descriptions of their content and the time period they cover.

These vary from databases that include single publications (such as the Worcester Telegram & Gazette Current, which includes articles published in the Worcester T&G from 1989-present) and collections of multiple publications (such as U.S. Newsstream, which includes current and historic articles from a number of national newspapers).

You can also select a database from the dropdown menu below.

News Subscriptions

Holy Cross students, faculty, and staff are provided with subscriptions to some news sources outside of library databases. These subscriptions allow you to create an account and access the regular site for that publication instead of going through a library database.

Other Ways to Find News Sources

E-Journal Search

There are some newspapers we have access to through other research databases. If you know the name of a specific newspaper or magazine that you want to find, you can use our E-Journals Search to see if you can access it. On the Library home page, click on "E-Journals" above the search box to change it to a journal search. This won't search for specific articles, only journal titles. Enter the name of the newspaper, magazine, or journal you are looking for and click search. If Holy Cross has access, you will see a list of where you can access it and for what date range. Choose one of the access options that has the date range you need. From there, you will be able to browse issues by date.

For example, Holy Cross has access to The Economist through some of our databases. Click on that link to see the different access options.

Advanced Search in CrossSearch

You can use CrossSearch to look for articles on a certain topic published in a specific newspaper or journal. On the Library home page, make sure "CrossSearch" is selected above the search box. Under the search box, click on "Advanced Search." You will see three available search boxes. In one search box, enter the name of the newspaper, magazine, or journal you are looking for. If there are multiple words in the title, put it in quotation marks: For example, "New York Times." Then, click on the dropdown menu labeled "Select a Field" and choose "SO Journal Title/Source." This will tell CrossSearch to only look for what you enter in that box in the title of the journal or newspaper. In this example, it will only show results published in the New York Times. Then, add your other search term(s) and click search. You can see an example below.

About Databases

A database is a collection of information that is arranged and tagged for easy searching and retrieval. Think of a database like an online storage container: It stores different publications, journals, books, magazines, and newspapers and makes it possible for you to access them. The library subscribes to over 300 databases that are available for Holy Cross students to use. Visit our A-Z Databases list to see what is available.

Subject Databases

Subject databases include journals and publications from a specific academic field. They may include a number of different publications, but they are all within the same academic area. These can be helpful if you want to look at one specific subject or field.

To find subject databases, go to the A-Z Database List. In the dropdown menu labeled "Subjects," select your subject area and click "Search." Some Political Science databases are listed below.

General Databases

General databases include information and journals that cover many subjects and academic fields. These can be a good place to start if you’re not sure what subject your topic falls under, if your topic is interdisciplinary and falls under multiple subject areas, if you want to see perspectives from different fields about your topic, or if you simply want to find general information.

To find general databases, go to the A-Z Database List. In the dropdown menu labeled "Subjects," select "_General" and click "Search." You will see a list of general databases, with some highlighted as "Best Bets." Some general databases are listed below.

Browse Political Science Journals

To see all of the journals available in a specific subject, start on the Library home page. Below the search box, look for "Electronic Resources." Click the link for "Browse E Journals (Browzine)." This will bring you to the online library of journals available through the Holy Cross Libraries. You can browse subjects from the provided list, or search for a specific subject. Try searching for "Political Science." You will see results that include specific journals and larger subject pages, indicated by a red icon. Choose one of those to see the journals available in that subject area. The default is to sort them alphabetically by title, but you can also sort by Journal Rank, which uses citation information to show you journals that are cited more often and considered "top" journals in a field first.

Follow this link to see a list of Political Science journals.

Advanced Searching for Specific Journals

Like the example above showing how to find articles published in a specific newspaper, you can also use advanced searching to find articles in a specific journal or range of journals. From the library website, click on "Advanced Search" below the search box. You will see three available search boxes. In one search box, enter the name of the journal you are looking for (it may be one you found by browsing all journals on a subject). If there are multiple words in the title, put it in quotation marks: For example, "European Journal of Political Research." Then, click on the dropdown menu labeled "Select a Field" and choose "SO Journal Title/Source." This will tell CrossSearch to only look for what you enter in that box in the title of the journal or newspaper. In this example, it will only show results published in the European Journal of Political Research. Then, add your other search term(s) and click search. You can see an example below.

If you don't know the title of a specific journal, you can also use a more general term in the SO Journal Title/Source search. For example, if you want to see results from journals on political science, try entering politics or political in that search box. It will show you results from journals that have that word in their title. Another trick is to use an asterisk - this tells the database to look for all versions of a word. If you enter politic* it will look for results that have any work that starts with politic, such as politics, political, or politician. 

Identify Keywords

Keywords are terms we use when searching for information. Searching in a library database is a little different from how you might be used to searching in a search engine like Google. In a search engine, you can type in entire phrases or questions and the algorithm will be able to parse through that to return the results you want. In a database or library search, you need to be more precise. By choosing your keywords strategically, you can maximize your search to make sure you're getting the information you want.

1. To identify keywords, start with your research topic or question. What are the important words or phrases in your question that sum up your topic? Write those words down. 
2. Next, look at your list and try to come up with 2-3 synonyms or other ways of referring to each concept. How do authors and researchers in the field refer to your topic? 
3. Think about how to narrow down your search by adding clarifying words or making your terms more specific. Are you looking for information about a specific location or population? Are there more specific ways to refer to your topic?

Keyword Chart

Combine Your Search Terms

You can use the words AND, OR, and NOT to combine your search terms for precise searching. These are called Boolean operators and each one has a different purpose. Using these can help narrow or broaden your search, and can help you combine topics to find more specific results. These strategies can be used in any library catalog or database.

Use AND to combine your search terms. Each search result with include all of the terms. This can help narrow your results.

Use OR to find results that contain at least one of your search terms. This can help you broaden your results, and can be good to use if the subject you're searching for is referred to in different ways.

Use NOT to exclude terms from your results. This can help you narrow your topic by removing a related term that you are not interested in finding sources about.

The Venn diagrams below show how Boolean operators work. The purple highlighted areas represent what the search results will include.