Library Search Tips
Search Tips for Databases
Databases are searchable online catalogs for research materials like scholarly journals and articles, books, primary source materials (such as letters, maps, datasets, or photographs), and video and audio materials. Milne Library's databases are all listed at A-Z Databases.
Use "advanced" search functions in databases
For best results, use Advanced Search options. To find scholarly articles, try combining a few keywords about the topic such as fashion AND sustainable or nutrition AND cholesterol AND United States.
Filter your search results
Look for "filter" options in your search results that let you choose a publication date range, for example. 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.
Use Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOT
The Boolean Operators are used to connect search terms. AND narrows. OR broadens. NOT excludes.
Suggested Databases
- Family Studies Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Abstracts related to family studies, including families, marriage, divorce, and family therapy. Contains over 50,000 records.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Full text for about 8,500 periodicals including over 7,300 peer-reviewed journals across most areas of academic study as well as indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 magazines and journals. Coverage is from 1887 to the present.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Features full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press with titles dating from 1990. Contains about 2 million articles from more than 300 publications with both national and regional coverage.
- Gale OneFile: Gender Studies This link opens in a new window
Search and discover balanced coverage of topics related to gender studies, family and marital issues, and more.
- Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
This full-text resource provides access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language social science journals. Social Sciences Full Text includes full-text articles from hundreds of journals, covering the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences. Content Includes: Full-text articles from 360 journals Full-text content dating as far back as 1972 High-quality indexing for more than 750 periodicals, over 510 of which are peer-reviewed.