This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new windowWM Libraries subscribes to Hundreds of specialized databases, each tailored for research in a specific field.
Interested in a sociological topic? We have a database for that.
Psychological? That too.
Grant writing? Yep.
The study of languages ("philology") that haven't been spoken in 2000 years? Two databases on that.
The highlighted databases are just some possible starting points, but there are so, so many more options. Use the subject guides to pinpoint the perfect database for your topic & question
TOPIC: Bicycles and gender in the United States
Articles are much, much more narrowly focused than books, and can be good if you're looking for something very specific.
Searching for articles is similar to our book search.
Once again, start with your topic and identify key terms. Use the same worksheet you used to find books earlier.
Keep the searches simple to start, only adding more terms as/if needed.
Examples:
Unless you're subject searching, PRIMO returns far too many results:
In PRIMO, use the filters on the side to also find newspapers, images, films, etc on your topic too!
The commands that worked in PRIMO will work in almost any database
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Bicycles AND gender
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: bikes OR Bicycles
NOT - exclude a term. Example: Bicycles NOT moped
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (Development OR invention) AND bicycles = search for the invention or development of bicycles
Example: (bicycles NOT unicycles) AND history= search for crime in history of bicycles but excludes unicycles
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "motor bike"
Example: "social aspects"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "motor bike" will exclude "motorized bike"
Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: bike* will give you results for bike, bikes, biker, bikers, bikeways
Example: bicycl* will give you results for bicycle, bicycles, bicycler, bicyclers, bicycling
Example: Wom* will give you woman, women, women's, womanhood etc
Warning: You may get unexpected results: Wom* also givs you wombat and womb