LibGuides: COMS 151: Public Speaking: Finding Resources

Librarian

Coleen Martin

Email Me

Contact:

coleen.martin@csun.edu

Subjects: Anthropology, Communication Studies, Journalism

Finding Articles

Here are a list of databases to get you started on finding articles:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,600 journals, including full text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles.
EBSCOhost Research Databases This link opens in a new window
Search across a wide range of general and subject specific databases, including resources previously provided by H.W. Wilson.
OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Cross-searching of H.W. Wilson databases. Contents include: full-text articles from over 2,500 publications (many of them peer-reviewed), dating back to 1994; indexing and abstracts from nearly 3,600 publications; humanities and science subjects; full bibliographic citations to more than 13,000 dissertations or theses; and retrospective coverage as far back as 1982.

Other Useful Databases:

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Explores a single hot issue in the news in depth each week. Covers topics in health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the economy.
Ethnic NewsWatch + Ethnic NewsWatch: A History This link opens in a new window
Provides a full-text collection of ethnic and minority press content from the U.S. and Canada offering additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press. Includes scholarly journals and working papers, trade journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, dissertations, and grass-roots publications primarily from minority presses. The companion database (Ethnic NewsWatch: A History) provides the historical foreground to the ethnic, minority, and native press content in Ethnic NewsWatch.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
Provides authoritative historical and current perspectives on the evolution of gender roles as they affect both men and women. Includes scholarly journal articles, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books and NGO, government and special reports that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Online resource covering today's hottest social issues. Features viewpoint articles.
ProQuest Global NewsStream This link opens in a new window
Full text access to a large selection of national and international newspapers, news wires and news sources.

Searching the Internet

Advanced Google Searching

Google offers many search techniques to help refine results, similar to what can be done in a library database. For example:

Enclose keywords in quotes to search an exact phrase: "san fernando valley"

Enclose in parentheses and separate with OR to retrieve any of those keywords in the results: (csun OR "california state university northridge")

Add a minus sign to remove webpages containing a keyword or phrase: -parking

Limit search to specific website: site:.calstate.edu

Limit search to specific domain: site:.gov

Limit results by date of last update: From the results screen, click Search Tools and select time period from the Anytime menu

Get definitions or explanations of terms: define keyword/phrase, i.e., define "fiscal cliff"

Watch the Advanced Google Searching video for more help.

See also: W eb Search Help for more tips and tricks for searching Google

More Search Engines

Google Scholar - (searches scholarly journals and other academic sources.)

Google Products - (Google offers many productivity tools as well as other specialized search engines.)

SearchEngineWatch - (There's more to searching the Internet than Google! This is a comprehensive directory of search engines by type.)

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators are used to connect two, or more, keywords together as a way to narrow or expand your search results.

AND - narrows your topic; only results with the terms 'women' and 'media' found in the title, subject heading or description will be shown.

OR - expands your topic; useful when you want to add to your results; this terms works well when using synonyms as keywords.

NOT - removes results; if your keyword can be defined in multiple ways. For example, 'image' can mean pictures but it could also be related to body image or self-esteem.

OneSearch

We've recently improved OneSearch! The following tutorial will show you how to navigate the library's resources including books and eBooks.

Finding Books Beyond the University Library

What if the University Library doesn't own a book you need? You can request it through CSU+, a new resource sharing program with other CSU Libraries. The following tutorial will show you how to use this option.