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LLED 8000: Doctoral Seminar in Language and Literacy Education (Cahnmann-Taylor): Some Databases to Search

Some Suggested Databases

How to you even FIND the databases? Start with the Libraries' Homepage.

  • Go to the right to the tab Databases A-- Z
  • Select the letter the desired database begins with
  • Click the letter
  • Scroll to your database

Another method is to identify your databases by topic.

  • Begin with the Libraries'  Homepage
  • Go to the right to the tab Research by Subject
  • Click
  • Scroll through the subjects to find your area
  • Click and see both general areas as well as course guides

The blue button Check SFX for a menu of link options for this item. A new window will open.-  in database search results will connect you to our electronic holdings of the JOURNAL where your article appears. If we don't electronically own the material you need, go to the GIL-FIND catalog to see if we have the item in print. Search for the journal title and not the article!

In addition to looking at the major Education & Psychology databases,  ERIC, Education Research Complete & APA  PsycInfo (aka  PsycInfo), consider your other options. Remember that you can search multiple databases simultaneously within database "families", i.e., EBSCOHost or ProQuest.

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. Search by title, limit by age/grade/Lexile Level for thousands of books. Libraries' holdings are linked. (Not a "family" member)

EBSCO e-Book Collection Search and browse for full-text children's titles and articles related to children's lit.

EBSCO Espanol    EBSCO databases translated into Spanish.

Explora for Elementary, Middle & High School. Full-text materials related to hundreds of topics, geared to particular grade levels. Includes Lexile Information.

JSTOR Access to back issues (from the date of first publication) of selected, core journals.

Literature Resource Center A complete literature reference database featuring biographical, bibliographical, and critical content.

MLA International Bibliography Scholarly materials on a huge variety of topics related to literature.

Project Muse Full text archive of articles on literature and criticism, history, art, and social sciences

Web of Science only indexes scholarly materials, so you won't have to limit your results to get them. It's heavily tilted toward the "hard" sciences, but is getting increasing coverage for the social sciences as well. One of the cool features of this database is that you can sort your results by "number of times cited". This is great way to discover articles that are heavily used in your field. 

  • Search for author by last name [no comma] first initial [no period] asterisk.  Your search will look like this bergmann c* The asterisk finds variations etc of middle names.
  • As with other databases, use the asterisk to expand your search and
  • combine terms you are willing to interchange by keeping them in the same search box, joining them with OR--stutter* OR fluency
  • On the results page, look to the left and under "Document Types" you may find "Review". A review article is a giant lit review. If it doesn't appear at first, use the "more options" button to see if there are any. This is good way to get a good over view of the lit.

Search Tips

Databases in the EBSCO "family" can be searched simultaneously by clicking on the "choose databases" link above the search box. Select the additional databases you need and click "ok" to search more than one database at a time. When you do this, leave the search option "Select a field" as it is, rather than trying to identify multiple subjects.

Keep terms you're willing to interchange in the same box, and join with OR. 

Use OR when you will be happy with A OR B, etc. Use AND to join your search terms when you require all of the terms. 

You can join the boxes as well.

ProQuest also has a "family" and the same tips apply to searching there.

Some search tips: The "select a field" option looks at the title, abstract, subject headings & full-text if available. It's a broad kind of search.

  • Create an account within the database to save your results and also to be able to send them to a citation manager. You need only create one account for all the EBSCO databases and one for all the ProQuest databases.
  • Use quotation marks to keep your phrases as phrases: "autism spectrum"
  • Use the asterisk * to expand your search. Type the root of your word~teach~ and add the asterisk~teach* to retrieve teach, teacher, teachers, teaching
  • Keep your synonyms in the same box and join by or. These would be terms that are interchangeable in your search. You'll get more hits this way.
  • Don't type complete sentences but use just the main concepts.
  • Narrow your results to "peer reviewed" to get scholarly materials. Sometimes this option may say "scholarly" instead of "peer reviewed". 
  • Use the blue -Check SFX for a menu of link options for this item. A new window will open.- button to see what kinds of access we have for that article. If it's not available electronically, scroll down to find the link "We may own this item in print" (different databases may use different wording, but you'll get it!). 
  • If we don't have it in print nor electronically, call on Interlibrary Loan.  They will track down the articles (and books) that we don't have. For free. Articles will come to you as a link in your email to a pdf of the document. Always check to be certain that we don't have print access before submitting your request.