The El Camino College Library provides access to specialized tools (databases) where you can find digital versions of articles that typically are not freely available through Google or other search engines. Some databases cover a variety of subject areas, while others are more specialized. Databases are designed to make the research process more effective and efficient for students.
Some advantages of databases includes:
Access databases from the homepage of the Library's website, look for the section titled "Article/Research Databases" and click on "Database Descriptions" to get to the page listing library databases by major subject area or alphabetically by the database name.
Periodicals are published at regular intervals throughout the year such as a magazine, journal, or newspaper:
For your assignment in this class, it is recommended that you search these recommended library databases:
Features information on up-to-date social issues, providing pro/con viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, statistics, images, podcasts, and links to credible websites for each topic.
In-depth reports on current, newsworthy, social issues. Reports are written by experienced journalists, footnoted and fact-checked. Full-length articles include an overview, historical background, chronology, pro/con viewpoints, plus resources for additional research.
U.S. Newsstream enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format. Access includes major dailies including the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. US Newsstream also offers one of the largest collections of local and regional newspapers.
MasterFILE Complete offers the largest collection of popular full text magazines, reference books and other highly-regarded sources from the world's leading publishers. Covering virtually every general interest subject area, full-text is available for nearly 2,400 magazines and journals, 850 reference books, more than 73,300 primary source documents, and more than 1.5 million photos, maps and flags dating back to 1917.
Access to more than 8,800 full-text journals and 7,700 peer-reviewed journal on a variety of subjects including those within STEM research, social sciences and the humanities. This is a comprehensive multi-disciplinary database.
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources in a variety of subject areas including economics, history, sociology, and political science. NOTE: not ALL JSTOR material is available via the ECC subscription.
This interactive tutorial introduces the parts of a scholarly article, and how to use an abstract to quickly determine relevance.
(Courtesy of NC State Univ Libraries)
