Using the Library Databases The Library has all kinds of interesting information that you can access from home on our subscription databases. The sources include peer-reviewed journal articles, electronic books, streaming videos and lots of articles from newspapers, specialized publications and magazines. Start at our website, www.clatsopcc.edu/library

This tutorial covers how to access and use three of our many our articles databases, Academic Search Premier, Academic OneFile and JSTOR. Streaming videos, eBooks, and other specialized electronic content is covered elsewhere. Navigating our site is easy.

On the righthand side, you’ll find the main search area, with tabs for Books & DVDs, Streaming, eBooks, Articles, Pro/Con and Reference. The selection defaults to the Books and DVDs search. If you select the Articles tab, you have access to some of our article databases.

To see the entire list of Library databases, go to the Research Resources area on the left and go to Articles & Databases.

This will get you to the entire list, with descriptions of each resource.

When you click the database link from off campus, you’ll be prompted to authenticate for the session using your email log-in credentials. If you are on campus, you will go straight to the resource. For remote access, you'll need to log in using your student credentials. Your username is first Initial, last name, last four digits of student ID#, and @students.clatsopcc.edu (example: bsmith5453@students.clatsopcc.edu). Your password format is A@YYYYMMDD (birthdate year, month, day; example: A@20010413).

Once inside the resource—in this case, Academic Search Premier—you can search for articles or other information sources.

Press ‘enter’ or the Search button to get results.

Click on the item title to see the article and tool set.

You can view the entire article on a pdf that can be printed or downloaded. You can also use the Cite feature to create an MLA or APA citation.

Try using different words in your search to see different results. The library databases tend to be literal and rely on correct spelling.

Combine terms inside a box with OR to expand results.

Limit results using AND between boxes.

You can also limit to specific fields with the drop-down selectors to the right of the search boxes.

Play with your search terms and have fun. You’ll be surprised what interesting things you’ll find in the library databases. Here’s an example of the same search in Academic OneFile.

Similar tools are available in most of the databases.

Another great interdisciplinary article database is JSTOR.

Use the Advanced Search option for a more powerful interface.

The results page also has various ways to limit.

Similar tools are available for citation and pdf output, etc. Have fun!