Try WorldCat Discovery for a newer and more robust experience!
These are the most popular databases to find information in the form of scholarly articles, book chapters and other types of information. Please note that your topics may slightly change based on how much information you find as you narrow (or expand) what you are searching for.
* An excellent bibliography helper online. www.bibme.org
* Help with formatting citations. www.citationmachine.net
* Zotero: a Firefox plug-in citation helper. www.zotero.org
* Use Prezi instead of Powerpoint. www.prezi.com
Where do you start? Here are the basics to get you started.
The Library Catalog Search will take you to the library’s online catalog for looking to see if we have a book. As you type, you can select if you want to search everything, library holdings, articles or course reserves. Once a search is performed, on the left-hand side, you can limit by availability, subject, author, resource type, collection (database), and more! Collection allows you to see which of our databases articles, ebooks and book chapters are being pulled from. There is also journal title that allows you to see what the top journals are for the search term(s) you entered.
The above image shows a search for psychology that has retrieved a physical book (note the call number and "map it" button. The second results is an ebook that is available in one of our databases. Clicking on the link will take you into the database to look at the item.
The Library databases are the place to conduct virtual research. Thousands of periodicals are full text and indexed so that you can search for what you want. Some will only have a citation and abstract, but don't get frustrated. Some of the more popular databases are found on the left-hand side of this LibGuide.
Primary versus Secondary Sources – A primary source is the actual information tied directly to an event or from that event. A secondary source is regurgitated information that is relying on a primary source or maybe not.
Abstract – Simply a summary of an article – do not use this to cite! You must have an entire article when citing.
Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Article – Scholars in the author’s field critique the article and decided to publish and/or edit on the basis that it meaningfully contributes to the knowledge of the discipline.
Search Tips -most search engines use these two basic ways of searching:
Boolean Searching – a word for using the terms and / or / not when using two or more search terms.
(ex. Japan OR Germany – would return anything on Germany or Japan; Japan NOT Germany – would exclude any results of Japan that mentioned Germany)
Phrase Searching – using quotes around two or more words to keep two or more words intact while searching.
(ex. “Egon Schiele” or "Burnin' Up For Your Love")
Interlibrary loan – available to you at no cost. Log in through the library’s website or use the interlibrary loan link in Primo to access the service. Use your CNU Connect information to log in. Anything we don’t own – we can find it for you. Please plan ahead.
As a CNU student, faculty, or staff member you are able to borrow materials from libraries at other area colleges and universities that belong to the Virginia Tidewater Consortium (VTC) for Higher Education. BEFORE you go to another library, you must fill out a short VTC application and obtain a borrower card at the Circulation Desk in the Trible Library. You must present the VTC borrower card and your CNU ID at a member institution library in order to borrow materials. The VTC cards are good for one semester.
