Finding Sources
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Library Search This link opens in a new window
Check out the Library Search which finds print and electronic items, including journal and newspaper articles, book chapters, books, reviews, legal documents, and much more. Note: Due to licensing restrictions, some content is only available to current students, faculty, and staff.
Keyword vs. Subject Searching
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Step 1: Start your search process by brainstorming a list of keywords that describe the main concepts of your topic or question. |
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Step 2: Use these keywords for your initial searches. Step 3: Use the Subject Heading links in the Library Catalog record to refine your search. |
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowLarge and important archive for academic journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Many journals do not have current issues.
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ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Search all ProQuest databases simultaneously. Includes arts, humanities, social sciences, news, and science and technology.
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Black Studies Center / Proquest Black Studies This link opens in a new windowAfrican American content compiled from many Proquest resources. Scholarly essays and journals articles, recent periodicals, historical newspapers, archival records, reference books, and films are included. Content sourced from the African American Biographical Dictionary, The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals Full Text, Black Literature Index, and many others for historical newspapers and archival records.
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Education Full Text This link opens in a new window
Articles, periodicals, yearbooks, series, and supplements on special education, educational tests, adult education, multicultural/ethnic education, teaching methods, continuing education, literacy standards, multicultural/ethnic education, etc.
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Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new window
Combines Women's Studies International and Men's Studies databases with the coverage of sexual diversity issues. Professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses & dissertations, websites, etc.
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MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Subject indexing of journals, books, proceedings, and dissertations in the areas of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, and the historical aspects of printing and publishing.
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America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada. Journal articles, book titles, book reviews, and dissertations.
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Literature Online This link opens in a new window
Literary criticism, selected full-text works (poetry, poems, and drama), author pages, reviews, and reference sources including biographies, bibliographies, and encyclopedias.
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Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowHumanities and social sciences periodicals. Includes Foundation Collection. Sister database to Periodicals Index Online.
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PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowAPA PsycINFO is a comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature. Journals, articles, books, dissertations, etc. Subjects include: applied psychology, communication systems, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental human and animal psychology, personality, psychological and physical disorders, physiological psychology and neuroscience, professional personnel and issues, psychometrics and statistics, social psychology, social processes and issues, sports psychology and leisure, treatment and prevention.
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Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndex of international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and citations to book reviews.
Google Scholar provides access to "peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations."
What Google Scholar does not contain, in most cases, is the fulltext of the articles -- but it does work with the library's Findit@VU service to help you get to the fulltext when available. If you are on campus, Findit@VU will automatically appear -- but if you are off campus it won't. Not clicking on Findit@VU may lead to you receiving a message indicating that you must purchase the article to view it.
Bookmark this link as your access point to Google Scholar to ensure that the Findit@VU links appears in your searches or follow the instructions for setting your preferences in the video below. Don't get caught paying for articles when you don't have to!
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Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, field recordings, commercials, raw footage, and thousands of award-winning films.
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Docuseek This link opens in a new window
Streaming access to documentary and social issue films from a variety of distributors, including Bullfrog, Collective Eye, and Icarus Films.
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HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowOral history interviews with both well-known and unsung African American artists, business leaders, scientists, athletes, and intellectuals.
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Kanopy This link opens in a new windowOn-demand streaming video service for documentaries, training films, and theatrical releases. Films under a current license agreement are available for immediate viewing. Other films may require a request through the Kanopy site. Viewing films in a group forum is permitted as long as the viewing is by Vanderbilt authorized viewers only (current faculty, staff, or students) and it is not for commercial benefit (i.e. no admission costs are charged and no profit is made from the screening).
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African American Communities This link opens in a new windowPamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports, and in-depth oral histories reveal the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity. Focuses predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina.
