HY 136: United States History since 1877: Finding Resources

Databases do not understand questions like Google can.

Databases talk through search queries. 

Search queries are combinations of search terms, Boolean Operators, and punctuation.

• Search terms
  • Break your research question down into individual words or small phrases.
• Boolean Operators
  • Follow the Boolean Operators page.
• Punctuation Marks
  • " " - Quotation marks means you want that exact phrase to be searched. Not all databases follow this.
    • "Carnegie Library" - you only get resources that have "Carnegie Library" exactly.
  • ? - Truncation/Wildcard symbol. Tells the database to substitute any letter there.
    • bibliograph? = bibliography, bibliographies, bibliographic...
    • read? = read, reading, reader, readmit, readdress...

You can learn how to create your own search terms in the How to Start a Research Project guide.

Here are some examples of possible searches:

• "united states" "colonial period"
• women "colonial period" diar?
• american newspapers colonial
• "indians of north america"
• colonial “united states” letter?
• newspaper? "united states" bibliograph?
• "thomas jefferson" correspondence

You can use Google Scholar to find versions of articles that you can access for free. 

Whenever you use Google Scholar, make sure to be logged into your JagMail account on that browser. Google Scholar will then understand that you have access to USA Libraries. 

In Google Scholar, you can search by author, article title, or subject. 

1. Search Google Scholar. Find an article in which you are interested.

2. Select the "Full-Text@USA" option below the article you want to read. You might need to click on the arrows to show this option. You may also see a PDF option to the side of the article's search result.

3. If you do not have any accessible version, you can still try to request access to the article through Interlibrary Loan.