Search Terms
Use keywords or search terms not sentences. Use quotes ("Native Americans") for phrases. If you don't find what you are looking for, check your spelling or try synonyms for your topic. Some databases use the term "Native Americans", some use the term "American Indians" and some use the term "Indians of North America".
Narrow Your Search
Use AND to add another term to your search.
Lincoln AND slaves
Constitution AND "Bill of Rights"
Use NOT to eliminate unwanted terms from your results
"George Washington" NOT bridge
KKK NOT Reconstruction
In many databases, you can also use the limiters to narrow results by full-text, peer reviewed, language, year published, source type (book, chapter, articles), and document type.
Narrow your topic by using the drop down FIELDS menu. When you are searching all fields (usually the default) for the term Reconstruction, you will get every record with "Reconstruction" listed in the record, including records about reconstruction of buildings.
Broaden Your Search
Use OR to broaden your search.
Child OR Children
"World War II" OR WWII
Copy the title of the article into the Library Catalog Search Box to see if the article is available from the library's resources.
If the Library does not have the article that you need, request an Interlibrary Loan. Most copies arrive in 1-2 days.