InfoHawk+

Our library catalog. Useful for finding physical things in the library like books. Also searches through SOME, BUT NOT ALL of our databases. Good place to start searching for resources at the beginning of a project.

• InfoHawk+
  • Can use Boolean operators and filters here, like you can in databases
  • Can also get you access to books and articles the library doesn't have access to through the InterLibrary Loan system, a link to which can be found in the Find Online section of a resource's InfoHawk+ page
    • A great resource for this project might be scholarly books! Publishers of scholarly books are usually called something like "XYZ University Press" or "NAME OF SCHOOL Press"

Finding Scholarly Articles

Here is a rough outline of the steps to finding research using databases. If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to contact me or make an appointment. My contact information is in the box below.

To find academic articles, search a variety of databases

1. Select a database
2. Place your search term in the search box (EX: sopranos) 
3. Link concepts with boolean phrases (and, or, not) (EX: sopranos NOT music) 
4. Place phrases in quotations (EX: "The Sopranos") 
5. To limit results, try limiting the publication date range
6. To expand results, find a source you like and then click a topic underneath the search result record for that article 
7. Repeat this process across different databases, making sure you use the same keywords
8. Grab new keywords from the resources that come up in your searches to further refine future searches and research questions

Databases of Scholarly Articles

Search through many scholarly journals at once. Best place to start looking for scholarly articles. Save you a lot of time and energy. Have their own searching techniques.

Guides to Other Potentially Relevant Databases

Librarians have found some of the best places to find articles about every subject taught at the University of Iowa. Here are links to a few guides they've created for subjects that might be relevant to your particular projects. Good to look through after using the above databases, which are more specifically relevant to your assignment.

Google Scholar

You can also use Google Scholar to search for scholarly material that the University of Iowa has access to! To learn how to do so, please follow the steps below.

• Step 1: Go to Google Scholar homepage
• Step 2: Click on the three lines on top left of page, and in resulting menu click Settings
• Step 3: Click on Library Links
• Step 4: In the search box near the middle of the page, under "Show library access links...", type in "University of Iowa" and press Enter or click the magnifying glass next to the search box
• Step 5: Click on the check mark box next to "University of Iowa - ViewIt@ULink!" so that a check mark appears
• Step 6: Click "Save" button
  • After you do that, it should send you back to the Google Scholar homepage, and now whenever you search it will provide links to University of Iowa resources that you can access when available!