How do I search for articles to browse?

Answer

Looking for a specific journal article? Please see the FAQ at the end of this page.

There are two main areas to search for articles at the CIIS Library:

The Library Catalog
Databases

Image showing the library homepage menu. Circled are the tabs for the Library Catalog and the Databases.

The Library Catalog is a good place to start your search. Databases can be helpful when the catalog is not bringing up enough results. Databases have more powerful search capabilities and tend to be subject-specific.

In either case, we recommend thinking of your topic and then breaking it down into concepts. These concepts can then be your keywords.

Below is an example search for the topic: Anna Freud's impact on children's counseling.

Some search tips:

Use an asterisk * when your keyword may have various endings (ie: counsel, counseling, counselor)
Use AND to connect concepts, OR for synonyms, and NOT for words you do not want to include in your search results.
Use "quotation marks" when you are searching for a phrase. This makes sure the words come up together rather than in different parts of the results (ie: Anna in the author, and Freud in the title).

Image of advanced search page. There are three rows to type in keywords. The first row keywords are counsel with an asterisk at the end, the word OR in capital letters and then the word therap with an asterisk. The second row keywords are child with an asterisk, the word OR in capital letters, and then the word kid with an asterisk. The third row keyword is Anna Freud in quotation marks.

Depending on your search, there may be books or videos included in your results. Use the Format filter to only search for articles (if desired).

Not finding enough? Finding too much? This is where the databases can be helpful.

The following image shows the same search as above but in a Psychology database. While the Library Catalog can do general searches, databases have some powerful tools to refine your search further. One area we find helpful is the drop-down filters next to the keyword search rows.

The first row is searching Anywhere except full text-NOFT. This is the default setting and is similar to the general search in the Library Catalog.

The second row is searching for the keywords only in the Abstract (or summary) of the article. This can be helpful when you are getting too many results.

The third row is searching Anywhere (sometimes also called All Text). This can be helpful when you are getting too few results. This often happens when keywords are very specific.