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Logan Library

Research Guide

Tips, tools, and services to help you find, evaluate, and use library resources in your research and class assignments.

Planning Your Search Strategy

Before you click on a database, spend five minutes planning your search. This step is the key to finding exactly what you need.

  1. Break Down Your Topic: Write your research question (e.g., How does social media use affect the mental health of college students?). Identify the 2–4 main concepts (e.g., social media, mental health, college students).
  2. Brainstorm Keywords & Synonyms: For each main concept, list all possible related words. Databases only search for the words you type, so you must include variations!
    • Concept 1 (Social Media): Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, "social networking"
    • Concept 2 (Mental Health): stress, depression, anxiety, "emotional well-being"
    • Concept 3 (College Students): undergraduates, university, higher education, freshmen
  3. Learn to Truncate: Save time by using the asterisk (*) symbol at the end of a word root to find all possible endings.
    • Example: Searching for teen* finds: teen, teens, teenager, teenagers.

Use a mix of broad terms (like anxiety) and specific terms in quotation marks (like "social media") to refine your results. Combine these terms with the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT to create a precise search.

Where Should I Search?

The library offers thousands of resources, but they are not all in one place! Choosing the right tool for your information need is essential.

Where to Start?

  1. For Physical Books: Use the Logan Library Catalog. 
  2. For Academic Articles: Go to our A-Z Database List and select a database specific to your major (e.g., APA PsycArticles for Psychology, JSTOR for Humanities, CINAHL for Nursing). If you’re uncertain, click the Subject drop-down menu and select the subject area you are interested in searching.
  3. To search all library resources through one box, go the library’s homepage and use the Ebsco Discovery Service (EDS) box. Here's a short video on searching library resources using this tool.

Filtering & Refining Your Results

Have you searched and gotten 20,000 results? Don't worry! Every database has powerful tools on the side of the screen to quickly get you to the best sources.

  • Limit to Peer-Reviewed: Always use this filter if your assignment requires scholarly sources. This will exclude magazines, newspapers, and trade publications.
  • Publication Date: Set a date range (e.g., the last 5 or 10 years) to ensure your research is current. Avoid older sources unless you are looking for historical context.
  • Subject Headings: After running a keyword search, look on the left-hand side for a list of subject terms (e.g., Subject: Education). Clicking these terms is like a "librarian-approved" search, often yielding highly relevant results that match the database's official vocabulary.
  • Boolean Logic (The Essentials): While you don't have to type out long codes, the search boxes use these basic rules:
    • AND: Used to combine different concepts (e.g., Laughter AND Therapy). Narrows your search.
    • OR: Used to group synonyms (e.g., Children OR Adolescents). Broadens your search.