There are three ways that you can get to the library's databases,
from off-campus (as well as from on-campus):
If you are off campus, when you click the name of a database, you will be asked for your Campus ID and password. After that, you'll have full access to the database*. But in order to get that access, the database has to identify you as GSU faculty/student/staff.
*There are a very few databases that you can't access this way and are only usable in the actual library building). These are clearly marked in the database listings as ON CAMPUS USE ONLY.
**You can also connect Google Scholar to our online article holdings. Click here for more information on setting up this option from off-campus.**
to search names as a phrase | ex: "walter cronkite"
as a wild card | ex: wom*n
AND between words to NARROW results | ex: cat AND dog
OR between words to EXPAND results | ex: cat OR kitten
If a database does not provide full text for an article, it will often include just the citation that tells you when and where the article was published.
Often, if an article's text isn't included along with the citation (either as a PDF or as HTML text), you'll see a Find It @GSU button instead. Click the button to get a list of possible available online sources for the article you want. You may get several links if we have the article through more than one database or if it is physically available in multiple locations.
Not every journal article is available online, so you may need to find it in print. Search GILFind for the journal title, just like you'd search for the title of a book, but selecting "Journal Title" instead of "Title" in the drop-down box.
If the GSU Library does not provide access to a specific article, you can always place an Interlibrary Loan request for the article as long as you have citation information for that article (author, title, name of journal, date, and page numbers). Many databases will include a link you can click to start an interlibrary loan (look for a link with the term "ILLiad." You can also start here to place an Interlibrary Loan using citation information.
The process of finding articles can be confusing at first. Ask a librarian for help if you can't find what you need!
Most databases have an Advanced Search option, which will let you search using multiple terms at once. For example:
An asterisk (*) is a truncation symbol that will bring up results using all the letters leading up to (or following) the * -- so, Islam* will bring up both "Islam" and "Islamic" etc.
The search string in the third box got cut off in the image: it should be lgbt or gay or homosexual or lesbian or bisexual or transgender or queer -- the "ors" mean that you're asking for articles that use any of the terms linked by the "ors"
* * * * *
A database's Advanced Search option will also let you limit your search in a number of ways, including:
For example, here are some options that often appear in Advanced Search:
Different subject databases may have other options as well, but most of our databases have these as Advanced Search options.
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One box that you SHOULD NOT CHECK is the "Full Text" box. Sounds backwards, I know, but here's why:
Many databases will give you only the citation for a particular article and not the full text.
But! We have lots of databases, and the article that you need may be in a different database.
If you find an article that you want, and it looks like we don't have full text, click the blue "Find It @ GSU" button. That button will point you to the article if it's held in another database, or will help you set up an Interlibrary Loan for the article.
If you check the "Full Text" box in a database, you're actually saying that you only want articles which that particular database has available in "full text." You're shutting off that "Find It @ GSU" option.
We have many more databases than these! To find others
Web of Science provides seamless access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index as well as Book Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
To see if the GSU Library provides access to a particular periodical (newspaper, magazine, or journal), follow these steps:
This search will give you more information about our holdings of this journal/magazine/newspaper.
This search does NOT take you directly to individual articles in that periodical, but if a "Full Text Online" result appears, you can click there to search in the journal.
