If you already have a citation from a bibliography or other source, you have everything you need to find the article if the library owns it!
First identify the title of the journal or the title of the article.
Example:
Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.
In the example above, The New Criterion is the title of the journal. The eclipse of listening is the article title. You know that the title is a journal article because the volume is typically listed in a journal citation and a book citation usually has a publisher name.
Then find the article:
Databases are online indexes of journal articles and abstracts. Many include full-text journal articles. Some databases also contain book chapters, newspaper/magazine articles, citations for books, and more.
In plain English, use a database to find articles!
When using a database it is important to use the right keywords and subjects to find content. You cannot just ask it a question like, "How do humans communicate?"
AGENDA setting theory (communication)
MUTED group theory
SPEECH codes theory
For authors and names try both first and last name.
If you use any one of these Subject Terms with a more specific term related to your topic you can rapidly find additional more relevant information. For example:
The words "AND," "OR," and "NOT" can help you make a search more precise. This is called Boolean searching, and it can seem really intimidating, but once you get the hang of them, Boolean searches can really help you!
For example, the search 'films AND psychology NOT children', will return a search with results that contain the keywords 'films' and 'pyschology' but not 'children' - important if you are only looking at adolescent psychology in films.
Learn more with this guide from the MIT libraries. It really helps explain Boolean searching, and you don’t have to be a computer scientist to understand!
The following video also outlines the ways to use advanced search techniques in databases.
Tip: Use a keyword search instead of a whole question. Then narrow down the results with the filters on the side.
The New York Times contains every article, fully searchable, published in the New York Times since 1851. First, set up an account (instructions here). Then just connect to nytimes.com and login. Or, once you have your account set up, download the NYTimes app from the app store. For more information on setting up an account and using the iPad app, see the New York Times Subject Guide.
Reading the bibliographies of a good article or book can be very helpful. But how do you find one of the sources listed? Look up the part written in italics.
If your citation looks something like the one below, then it's an article. (Hint: You know it's a journal article if you see volume/issue/page #s.)
Morrow, P. ‘‘Those Sick Challenger Jokes.’’ Journal of Popular Culture. 20.4 (1987): 175-84.
Finding it:
-look up the title of the journal in the OneSource Journal Finder (Note: Look up the journal title, which is in italics, not the "article title," which is in "quotation marks.")
-if the journal is available electronically, you can search within the journal itself or click on the "Full Text Access" link, and check if we have access to the year you need
-if the journal is available in print, read the rest of the journal's record to see if we have the volume/issue you need
If your citation looks something like the one below, then it's a book. (Hint: You know it's a book if you see a city and a publisher/press)
Framing Monsters: Fantasy Film and Social Alienation; Bellin, Joshua David; 2005, Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press.
Finding it:
-look up the title of the book in the Hiram Library Catalog
-if we don't have it, click on the OhioLINK button to find it in another Ohio library