Find Sources - UGS 302: New World/Old World Encounters - Guernsey & Johns - LibGuides at University of Texas at Austin

1. Choose a Database

Single articles on a topic are found in our library databases. The UT Libraries pay to have access to these databases and the articles they contain.

You can search in databases that are multidisciplinary or subject-specific.

Multidisciplinary databases contain articles on many topics/from many areas of study. A good place to start for a multidisciplinary search is the main search bar on the library homepage which searches lots of databases or Academic Search Complete.
Subject Specific databases contain articles from specific disciplines like Medicine, English, or Psychology. See your list of suggested databases below.

2. Keywords

Keyword tool
Use this tool to help you brainstorm keywords on your topic.

Searching databases is different than searching in Google. You have to distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases.

Write down your topic and underline the main concepts (ex. Animals in Aztec Life and Culture)

For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms that get at that concept:

The first key concept will likely be in common for everyone on this topic, but the second and third will be different, background information can help with determining what to search for.

Key Concepts

Animals

Aztec

Culture

Related Terms

Pets

Dogs

Eagles

Carnivores

Zoo

Tenochtitlan

Art

Religion

Ritual

Diet

Combine key terms using AND and OR:
- AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles).
- OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search

3. Recommended Databases

Multidisciplinary

Library search bar - advanced search
The advanced search version of the search bar on the library homepage. Use options to limit to books or to scholarly/peer reviewed articles.

Academic Search Complete
Find magazine, newspaper and scholarly articles on all kinds of topics.
JSTOR
Find scholarly articles and some books from across disciplines.

Subject-Specific

Bibliography of the History of Art
Find information on the history of European and American art.
Historical Abstracts
Find scholarly articles on history topics.
Anthropology Plus
Unlimited users.
Updated quarterly. Brings together into one searchable resource Anthropological Literature from Harvard University and Anthropological Index from Royal Anthropological Institute in the UK. Provides worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Offers coverage of all core periodicals in the field in addition to local and lesser-known journals.

Images

Art and Architecture Source
A digital library featuring over one and a half million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences. In addition to keyword and advanced searching, browsing is available by geography, classification, collection, and sample topic. Also, find scholarly articles on art, art history, and architecture.

All Databases
Find all of our databases here - you can filter them by subject.

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What are databases?

This video, from RMIT University, explains what a database is...

Where's the Article?

If you don’t see a .pdf of the article you want, click FIND IT AT UT to find it in another database or in print in the Libraries.

If it is only in print in the Libraries or we don’t own the article, click GET A SCAN to have the article emailed to you. This option will take a few days.