Guidelines for Finding Scholarly Secondary Sources Using Online Databases

Guidelines for Finding Scholarly Secondary Sources Using Online Databases Go to the University of Michigan Library website: HYPERLINK "http://www.lib.umich.edu" www.lib.umich.edu In the upper left-hand corner, click on ?MIRLYN?. At the top of the screen, click on ?Go To Find Articles?. From here, you can either search for a specific database (i.e., JSTOR), browse databases by category (i.e., Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences), or browse all databases by alphabetical order. Once you have chosen a database, you can perform a search for articles by either keywords or subject, or both. (Note: You may have to click on a link for ?Advanced Search? before you can do this.) You will receive a list of hits corresponding to your search terms. You can click on a particular article title to see more information, which usually includes an abstract (summary) of the article. This will help you to decide if this is an appropriate article to use for your paper. The best databases to use for your search are America: History and Life and JSTOR. You may also wish to use American Humanities Index, ArticleFirst, Chicano Database, History of Science, Technology and Medicine, or WorldCat. Special note on JSTOR: This database allows you to search or browse for articles by journal category (i.e. Anthropology, History, or Economics). Also, JSTOR provides .pdf files of every article in its database, so you can easily download an article and print it off rather than having to go to the library stacks to find the journal and then pay money to photocopy the specific article you want. While none of the other databases provide you directly with such access to articles, they will often include a button (with the letters SFX ) that will allow you to link to an electronic version of the document in question, if such an electronic version exists. If none does, then you will have to either go to the library to find the article and photocopy it, or order the article through interlibrary loan (ILL). If you have questions about how to order an item through ILL, see your GSI for help.