Main Searchbar
The search box on the library's home page is a simple, powerful discovery tool that can help you find physical items in our library (e.g. books, DVDs, reference materials) and valuable content from scholarly journals, trade publications, popular magazines, and newspapers.
The library's search box allows you to search multiple databases and thousands of journals all at once.
The links below can be used for searching just one database at a time in order to target your search results.
Individual Databases
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
The CQ Researcher provides in-depth coverage of the most important issues of the day. The reports are written by experienced journalists, footnoted and professionally fact-checked. Full-length articles include an overview, historical background, chronology, pro/con feature, plus resources for additional research.
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Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowOpposing Viewpoints provides full-text articles for background on controversial topics and professionally-published opinion pieces.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowCovering most areas of academic study, this scholarly, multi-disciplinary database contains more than 6,100 full-text periodicals and offers access to monographs, reports, conference proceedings and much more.
Selecting Keywords
The search terms or keywords you use to search are what determine the results you get. Here's a good exercise to help you generate keywords:
- Express your topic in a topic sentence: “What is the effect of television violence on children?”
- Generate keyword search terms by identifying the main ideas or concepts within that topic sentence while avoiding common words likely to appear in articles about unrelated topics, (e.g. leave out words like "impact," "effect," "study," or "research.") “What is the effect of television violence on children?” = Television, Violence, Children
- Expand your search terms by brainstorming related terms or synonyms that describe your main ideas:
- Television – media, TV
- Violence – aggression, hostility
- Children – toddlers, youngsters, boys, girls
Newspaper Databases
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US Major Daily Newspapers This link opens in a new windowU.S. Major Dailies provides access to the five most respected U.S. national and regional newspapers: The New York Times (1980-present), Washington Post (1987-present), Los Angeles Times (1985-present), Chicago Tribune (1985-present), and the Wall Street Journal (1984-present).
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New York Times This link opens in a new windowSearch the full text of The New York Times (starting in 1985).
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Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new windowThis resource includes 1,570 full-text newspapers, providing more than 27 million full-text articles. Newspaper Source Plus contains comprehensive full text for major national (U.S.) and international newspapers, and features more than 583,100 television and radio news transcripts, videos and podcasts. - SUNYConnect [EBSCOhost]
Combining Search Terms
You can create complex search strategies by combining keywords using the linking words AND, OR and NOT. For example, if your search terms are mathematics and curriculum:
- AND – Narrows and focuses the search results. The search mathematics AND curriculum will bring only results where both the terms are present.
- OR – Broadens the search results. Using OR will bring results where the term mathematics is present, or results where curriculum is present, or results where both terms are present. OR is useful if you have more than one way to refer to a concept -- Example: elementary OR primary.
- NOT – Excludes anything where the term after the NOT is present.
Wildcards & Truncation
You can add special symbols called "wildcards" to a search term in order to receive more results. Often times this is used if a you're not familiar with a spelling, a word has multiple spellings, or you're trying to recall specific information. Different search tools, databases, and database providers utilize different wildcard characters, but the asterisk or "star" (*) is one of the most commonly used.
Truncation allows you to search various forms of a word by finding alternate endings. The wildcard character is placed at the end of the first few letters of a search term or at the end of its root. A root is the base or most simplified form of a word.
For example, using the search terms "Indian*" may find information containing "Indian, Indians, Indiana, Indianapolis"
Each database or database provider utilizes different wildcard characters and may have restrictions such as searching no less than 3 letters to achieve results.