Reference Desk 610.902.8537
| No Operator | Searches words together as a phrase in the exact order in which you have typed them. |
| AND | Retrieves records containing both or all of the search terms joined by AND; the middle sliver of a Venn Diagram. |
| OR | Retrieves records containing either or any of the search terms joined by OR; everything included in a Venn Diagram |
| NOT | Retrieves records that do not contain a specific term. |
| ( ) |
Groups words together so that you can relate phrases by operators or layer your operators. For example: (feminist or feminism) AND (literary (theory or criticism)) Just like high school algebra, parentheses must be in pairs, and the inner-most pair is worked first. |
Periodical databases are available by selecting the Databases link on the Library's homepage.
Don’t forget to select the “Full Text” option and/or to limit your results by publication date.
See the below list for large multidisciplinary databases that are suitable for research on many topics:
Though the citations in the databases are USUALLY correct, they are not error-proof.
Please double check any citations that you receive or copy from a database against your manual or the library's citation guides.
What does your writing assignment require? A thesis, a thesis statement, a research question, a hypothesis? How are these different, and how do they work together?
Strong Thesis Statements -- from University of North Carolina
How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement -- from Indiana University Bloomington
Library Hours
Mon- Thu 8am-10pm
Fri 8am-5pm
Sat Closed
Sun 12pm-6pm
