Select Your Search Strategies
Exact Phrase
Add Quotation Marks to search for an exact phrase or words in a specific or EXACT order. An exact phrase will return more accurate results because it snaps all of the words together, turning it into a phrase that must be found exactly in that order.
Example: social media vs. “social media”
3 Magic Words - AND, OR, NOT
Filters
Apply filters to limit your search results. Because they limit your results, filters might also be called limiters. The most common and helpful filters to limit your results are:
- Date: Limit to the past 5 years, or a specific date range
- Source Type: Limit to academic/scholarly sources or any other type, such as news or ebooks
- Peer Review: Limit to scholarly sources that have been peer reviewed
Keywords
Create a list of keywords associated with your topic.
What else could it be called (synonyms)?
For example: smartphone - "cell phone" - cell - "mobile phone" - "cellular phone" - mobile - "mobile device"
Topics can be narrowed or broadened depending on the use of search terms. What describes it specifically (hyponyms)? What is it related to broadly (hypernyms)?
General: smartphone
Narrower: iPhone
Broader: mobile device
Alabama Virtual Library
If individual database links don't work, try this link to the Alabama Virtual Library.
Academic Video Online
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Academic Video Online
Academic Video Online is Alexander Street's most comprehensive video subscription. Launched in 2013, this expansive resource comprises the full content of dozens of video collections and bonus discipline clusters, and grows by 7,000 titles each year. Explore over 80,000 titles with subjects across all disciplines.
Articles
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Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier curates and indexes open access journals. -
Gale Power Search
Gale Power Search provides simultaneous searching across a variety of Gale databases including: Gale General OneFile, Gale Literature, Gale in Context, Gale eBooks and more -
ERIC
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is a database of indexed and full-text education literature resources.
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JSTOR
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
* Students must make a free account, then they may read up to 100 articles for free a month.
eBooks
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ProQuest Ebooks
60,000+ titles with content chosen to support 2-year and smaller 4-year colleges. Covers traditional areas like business, management, and nursing & allied health plus emerging areas like artificial intelligence and criminal justice. -
Gale eBooks
Gale eBooks is a collection of e-books that covers a multitude of subjects including early learning, history, education, business, science, arts, and more.
News Articles
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Access World News
Research diverse perspectives, topics and trends that align with areas of study such as Business, Health, Criminal Justice, Science, Humanities, Political Science and more. Features reliable, credible information from a wide variety of international, national and local news sources. Also available remotely 24/7 on any device. -
Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch Collection is a full-text subscription database containing newspapers, magazines, journals, and newsletters of the ethnic, minority, and native press. Designed to provide the other side of the story, ENW titles offer additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press. -
Newspaper Source
Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full-text for hundreds of national, international and regional newspapers, as well as television and radio transcripts from major networks. -
Points of View
Points of View Reference Source contains resources that present multiple sides of an issue. Points of View Reference Source content includes: 520 topics each with an overview, point, and counterpoint and Guide to Critical Analysis and Topics include Big Tech and Antitrust Law, Gender Equity in Professional Sports, Indian Child Welfare Act, Repatriation of Cultural Artifacts, and more
Open Access
Open Access (OA) resources are free with no paywalls. You should still cite your sources when using them (except in the case of some images in public domain). Explore the resources below to find books, articles, news, and more without any paywalls.