ENG101: College Writing (Yokel)
Recommended Databases for English
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JSTOR - Open and Free Content on JSTOR and Artstor This link opens in a new windowOur partnerships with libraries and publishers help us make content discoverable and freely accessible worldwide.
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Dictionary of Literary Biography - Gale This link opens in a new windowFull text database providing biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genre. The award-winning Gale Literature: Dictionary of Literary Biography provides comprehensive access to the series dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible to students and interested readers while simultaneously satisfying the standards of librarians, teachers, and scholars. The series provides reliable information on authors and their works in an easy to understand, engaging format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Dictionary of Literary Biography includes the main series, documentary, and yearbook volumes.
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Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database containing mostly peer-reviewed, scholarly articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. Over 8,000 academic journal titles are included with extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and many other subjects. Also includes hundreds of podcasts and transcripts from NPR, CNN, and CBC, as well as full text New York Times content back to 1995. Coverage 1964 – present.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
One of the largest academic multi-disciplinary databases, providing indexing and abstracting for over 8,000 periodicals. Full text is provided for more than 4,650 of these titles with over 3,590 of these being peer-reviewed, scholarly journals. Searchable, cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. Coverage: 1975 (over 100 journals) – present.
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Gale eBooks (Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new windowFull text database providing subject specific dictionaries, encyclopedias and general reference books as well as the online version of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Subjects include science, history, medicine, psychology and mental health, literature, drama, film, popular culture, business, law, and more.
Boston Public Library Databases
The Boston Public Library provides many excellent databases for people who reside and/or work in Massachusetts. Some of those databases are also available from the BCC Learning Resources Center, others are not.
You need a BPL card to use their databases. You can even register online for a temporary BPL eCard in order to have remote access to the databases. The registration process takes only a few seconds.
Who can get a Library Card?
You are eligible for a library card if you are:
- A resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- A Massachusetts property owner
- Employed in Massachusetts
- Attending school in Massachusetts
- A resident of temporary housing
Those who fulfill the Massachusetts resident requirement (above) can sign up for a temporary (3 years) Boston Public Library eCard via the web. BPL eCards are virtual library cards that allow users immediate access to all of the Boston Public Library's electronic resources, including magazine databases, downloadable audio, video and music. eCard users who wish to check out library materials will be asked to upgrade to a standard BPL card. For more information about eCards, please visit the library's FAQ.
Once you have applied for your eCard, you gain access to the electronic databases that are available through remote access via the BPL. Start your research.
Try Boolean Connectors to Target Search Results!
Keyword searching uses the words AND / OR as powerful connectors between keyword terms to tell a database or catalog how to search according to a system of Boolean logic.
1. Turn your research question or statement into keywords:
Confirmation bias, promoted by regular use of social media, has a negative impact on students' critical thinking skills.
"confirmation bias" "social media" "critical thinking"*
*"Quotes" are used to indicate a phrase is being searched for. Put quotes around two-or-more word combinations.
2. Make a list of synonyms for each of the terms or concepts:
| "confirmation bias" | "social media" | "critical thinking" |
| "echo chamber" | "social networking sites" |
3. Use Boolean logic to connect these keywords into a search statement.
"social media" and "confirmation bias"
*Your results will show only articles that contain both terms, or phrases. This connector serves to narrow your results.
"confirmation bias" or "echo chamber"
*Your results will show articles in which at least one of the terms, or phrases, appears. This connector serves to expand your potential results.