Kate Gustafson's W131 Online Class Guide

The library carries hundreds of online databases and websites for access to documents, and over 100,000 journals available both online and in print. With such a wide variety, it can be difficult to find a place to start. This section of the guide will cover the process of finding articles through the library.

As with books, this page is a brief overview of how to find articles. Please consult the full How To Find Articles guide for in-depth guidance on how to search databases.

The library has organized our online resources into two guides: Resources A-Z and Resources by Subject.

Resources A-Z is designed for users to reach a specific database if they know its name; for example, if you want to quickly find JSTOR or Academic Search Premier.

Resources by Subject is often the best place to start your search. This guide divides our online databases and websites by different subjects.

The home page for the Resources by Subject guide is a "portal" page to each subject. Click on the subject you want to get a listing of online resources relevant to the subject.

If you are ever not sure which subject to use, or if you find that the subject you chose is not giving results you want, a safe next step is to use the General Academic page. Resources on this page cover multiple subjects and may show useful articles that aren't typically seen in subject specific databases. For this class, you will want to start with the English page.

You may notice two tabs to this box: Top Resources and All Resources.

Top Resources are the databases and websites we think are most useful for research for the broadest possible audience. In most cases, these databases are a good starting point.

All Resources is a fuller list of every online resource that could apply to research with that subject. There are cases where databases in the All Resources tab can be more useful than one of the Top Resources. For example, the U.S. History page includes a database titled Papers of George Washington Digital Edition. Most users will not need this database, but it could be very useful for research on George Washington or his time period.