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Search Tips for Databases
Databases are searchable online catalogs for research materials such as scholarly journals, articles, books, primary source materials, audio-visual material, and streaming content. Milne Library's databases are included on our A-Z List page.
Use "advanced" search functions in databases
For best results, use Advanced Search options. Try combining a few keywords about the topic, such as the name of a region or country AND a Biology-related term to find scholarly articles.
Filter your search results
Look for "filter" options in your search results that enables you to choose specific types of sources. You can filter for a publication date range, for example, if you need a recent article. If you are looking for a certain kind of research material -- like a full-text article, a book, or an audio file -- you can often filter for type, too. Look for a peer-reviewed option if you need to filter for that specific type of scholarly material.
Databases
Museum Studies is an interdisciplinary field so you might need to search a variety of subject databases to find sources, depending on the subfield you are researching: history, art history, or education. From the A-Z list, you can select "Cooperstown Graduate Program" from the subject list and see what databases have been tagged for museum studies research.
Databases that are best bets for research in museums studies subject areas:
- AATA Online This link opens in a new windowAbstracts of International Conservation Literature is a comprehensive database of 100,000 abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage.Publicly Accessible.
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 1 This link opens in a new windowConsists of over 850,000 pages including the full-text of almost every seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American title published before 1821. Areas covered include Afro-Americana, children's literature, education, eighteenth-century imprints, leisure and hobbies, medicine, religion, the trades, and women's literature.
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 2 This link opens in a new windowPresents over 1000 full-text titles dating from 1821 through 1837. Areas covered include agriculture, entertainment, history, literary criticism, and politics.
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 3 This link opens in a new windowConsists of over 850,000 pages including the full-text of almost every seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American title published before 1821. Areas covered include Afro-Americana, children's literature, education, eighteenth-century imprints, leisure and hobbies, medicine, religion, the trades, and women's literature.
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 4 This link opens in a new windowProvides a diverse record of life leading up to and during the Civil War, from 1853-1865. News from the battlefront can be found in addition to science, literature, medicine, agriculture, women’s fashion, family life, and religion.
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection: Series 5 This link opens in a new windowConsists of over 850,000 pages including the full-text of almost every seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American title published before 1821. Areas covered include Afro-Americana, children's literature, education, eighteenth-century imprints, leisure and hobbies, medicine, religion, the trades, and women's literature.
- Art Index (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowProvides comprehensive indexing (with some full-text articles) of over 350 international art publications, including periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins from 1984 to the present. Topics covered include art, archaeology, art history, crafts, fashion design, non-western art, painting, photography, pottery, sculpture, and textiles.
- Ebooks & Journals: Cambridge Core This link opens in a new windowCambridge Core is the place to find valuable research and academic information, including open access content. With over 1.8 million journal articles and 46,000+ books, Cambridge Core is the central destination for academic research.
- Fine Arts Collection This link opens in a new windowContains over 100 full-text magazines and journals in areas such as drama, music, art history, and film making.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to over 1400 core scholarly journals and e-books across most subject areas.
Can be used for course content: Titles from many university presses and other academic publishers. - Project Muse This link opens in a new windowFull text database of over 100 scholarly journals and books from university presses in fields including literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, political science, gender studies, and economics. Includes books from many university presses and scholarly journals
- Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new windowWiley's Online Library database enables searching of articles from hundreds of electronic journals published by Wiley and related companies, as well as a vast and growing collection of reference works and other online books.
- World Digital Library This link opens in a new windowThis collection contains cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections.
E-Book Collections
There are two ways to find eBooks from the library's collections. One method is to search in the Milne Library catalog. Navigate to the library homepage and click on 'Advanced Search.' Then enter your search terms.
- If you wish to find online books, limit the search scope to 'Online Access' and change the 'Material Type' to 'Books'.
The second method is to search directly in one of the library's e-book databases. All e-book databases are available in the A-Z List. Here are some best bets for museum studies:
- Ebooks & Journals: Cambridge Core This link opens in a new windowCambridge Core is the place to find valuable research and academic information, including open access content. With over 1.8 million journal articles and 46,000+ books, Cambridge Core is the central destination for academic research.
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) This link opens in a new windowDOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers.
- Ebook Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowOver 100,000 full-text ebooks in categories including adult fiction and non-fiction, art, biography, business, economics, computer science, education, medicine, history, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, and reference. Downloadable to portable devices.
Can be used for course content: eBooks from academic publishers in all subject disciplines. - Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowBroad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business and other subjects. Optimized for search and discovery, the Gale eBooks platform enables you to search through multiple nonfiction eBooks within a single search.
- Ebook Collection (Project Gutenberg) This link opens in a new windowProject Gutenberg is an online library of over 70,000 free e-books.
- Ebook Central Academic Complete This link opens in a new windowProvides approximately 150,000 multidisciplinary ebooks.
Can be used for course content: eBooks from academic publishers in all subject disciplines.