Skip to Main Content
     

ENGL 368: African-American Literature (Knight)

Fall 2018

What is a Research Database?

Databases are tools designed to help you search the scholarly (and other) articles and resources available to you through the Holy Cross Libraries.  Article databases are like very long bibliographies of articles that might interest you -- some that are available physically at Holy Cross, some available online, and some that we have to borrow from other libraries. 

Types of Databases

There are two main kinds of research databases that you might encounter: 

- General databases, like Academic Search Premier and JSTOR, which have a little bit of everything; 

 - Databases for specific subjects or types of sources (ex - newspapers, historical sources, videos, etc.) 

In addition, you will probably use CrossSearch, the search box on the homepage of the Libraries' website. CrossSearch is a discovery tool which searches many (though not all) databases at once. CrossSearch is like a library version of Google -- it is a great place to get your search started and find many sources at once, but once you get started on your research, you will probably want to use a more specific tool. 

Click here to see the full list of Research Databases we have in the Libraries. We have over 300! 

Where Should I Look?

In addition to searching the research databases listed here, you may also want to try searching in specific subject specific journals by using the E-Journals Search.

Examples of journals:

Google Scholar is a great tool for doing a broad search of scholarly literature on your topic:

  • Google Scholar searches across many disciplines. 

  • Your search results will include a broad range of sources, including journal articles, conference papers, theses, dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, and abstracts. 

  • Results come from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. 

  • Google Scholar also includes court opinions and patents.

You'll just want to keep some things in mind:

  • Coverage is not comprehensive. Many sourcess are hidden in publishers' databases and journals that Google can't search, so you'll want to look at other databases as well. 

  • Search results can include links to things like course syllabi and high school term papers, so you'll want to evaluate what you find. 

You can access advanced search features by clicking the arrow in the right of the search box. These features allow you to refine your search.

Look for the words Get Full Txt @ Holy Cross next to an article. You should be able to access any of these articles through the library's subscriptions. If you come across a source that Holy Cross does not have access to, remember that you can request the item through Interlibrary Loan.

Scholar Settings When you are on the Holy Cross campus, Google Scholar will automatically show you those Get Full Txt @ Holy Cross links next to articles that Holy Cross has access to. If you are off-campus, you can set your Scholar Settings to show the links for accessing sources through Holy Cross. You can modify your settings by selecting the Settings link in the upper-right corner of Google Scholar webpage.

Click on the Cited by and Related articles links at the bottom of a search result to find more relevant articles and books.

Track Down Your Article

If you already have the citation information for an article, don't use the databases -- you can track it down directly through
our  E-Journals Search! 

 

All the information that you will need is in this citation. You can find some tips for using the eJournals portal here.  Can't find the journal in E-Journals? Check CrossSearch to see if we have a paper copy in the library: 

Still can't find the article?  Request it through Interlibrary Loan. You can fill out the form manually, or, if you've found the article cited in a database, the  button usually includes an option to place a request: