If you go the the Library's Youtube channel, and look at the video called, How to Find Research Resources at NTCC, click on the time stamp listed below to take you to a section of the video that pertains to the topic you have in question. (The video was a live session in Julie Ratliff's English 1301 class in the fall of 2019.)
2:18 Databases page
3:04 What databases are good for ANY class?
4:02 How to search multiple EbscoHost databases at once.
6:10 What is citation information and what is an abstract?
8:40 What to do when you find a source you like?
11:11 Julie Ratliff explains the subject terms within an article and how to use them.
13:36 How to quickly narrow results using only scholarly journals (with a definition) and a date range.
15:47 What is HTML? PDF? What is the difference?
18:30 Opposing Viewpoints in Context database (great for debates/argumentative papers/persuasive papers/controversial topics, and statistics)
27:58 Science in Context (It's like Opposing Viewpoints, but more science based, and contains no viewpoints. There's some overlap of content between the two.)
30:52 Julie Ratliff explains using synonyms for search terms.
From the library homepage (www.ntcc.edu/library) click on the Databases link, then click on the EBSCOhost Databases (Complete List) link. Off campus it will ask for the MyEagle Portal username and password (on campus it won’t ask for that). Then you’ll see a list of about 50+ databases, in which there is a good chance that whatever topic your researching, or whatever class this research assignment is for, there is a good chance that it will be within this list of databases, which is the lion’s share of what we have, but we do have other databases outside of this list. Check the box at the top that says “select all” then hit continue. Type in the search box what you are looking for and then hit search.
If you use quotation marks (""), anything within quotation marks will look for that specific word or phrase, and doing AND all in caps is a Boolean search term, so it will only give you results that have both terms. If you use some of the other Boolean operators (OR, NOT) it will change the results. The OR will give you one or the other but might include both terms. The NOT will give you one but not the other. Here is a link to a subject guide (at another university) that explains Boolean operators.
Keep in mind that you may have to play with your search terms some, because the computer doesn’t really recognize that certain terms basically mean the same thing (i.e. teen, teens, teenager, young adult, juvenile, and others if you were researching teen pregnancy as an example).
These directions do not include when you are searching only peer reviewed/scholarly journals/academic journals, and I do know that there are a few instructors that do require that that box needs to be checked, but double check with your teacher if you don’t know if it is required. I can explain what that means too, but since the majority do not require that it needs to be checked (they’re ok if it is though), that is why I didn’t include it.
Look on the left-hand side of the screen after getting your search results, and the most important part is look for these links:
Whichever one you pick, ALWAYS do the “show more” underneath the one you pick, that way you can pick as many terms that you like, and will help narrow down the result list after you hit the update button.
It is very likely you may have to repeat the above steps more than a few times to get down to a searchable list (+/- 100 results).
Once you have found an article that you think you might want, click on the title to read more about it. ALWAYS read the abstract first before going to the full text of the article (an abstract is a one paragraph summary what the article is about). You can get links to the full text on the left side of the screen and will have one or both of the below options (but my personal preference is PDF, if you have an option):
Once you have the full text, you can email it, save it or print it, and -if it’s not for English class- you can use the citation tool too. If you do use the citation tool, ALWAYS treat it as a rough draft NEVER a final draft, because it will not be perfect every time, so double check the citations by going to the Citation Style Guide on the library’s homepage.
The print, save, and email options on an HTML document will be on the right side of the screen and will look like this:
For a PDF document the email option will be in the same spot as it is for an HTML document, but the print and save/download icons will most likely be in the top right corner of the box that contains your document. It may also be in a slightly different location within the box that contains the article, depending on what browser you use. The icons will look something like this:
