Suggested Databases

If the big discovery search of everything is too much, try searching in just one specialized collection at a time.

Bloom's Literature (Infobase) This link opens in a new window
Essays and criticism examining the lives of great authors and their works throughout history.
Gale eBooks: General Reference Collection This link opens in a new window
Focused more on article look-ups, like a digital encyclopedia. You can read entire books in your browser, but the interface is oriented towards searching keywords and providing results from within the e-books in its collection.

Dozens of complete reference books on arts, business, education, history, law, literature, sciences, and technology, including the popular sets of Short Stories for Students, Novels for Students, Poetry for Students, and Drama for Students.
Search all Gale databases at once with Gale PowerSearch.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Complete historical full text of all issues of peer-reviewed journals in a wide range of humanities and social science fields. Includes Artstor. (pronounced jay-store)
Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Full-text journal articles, critical essays, work overviews & summaries, and author biographies from authoritative sources.
Literary Reference Source (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Criticisms, synopses, and reviews of authors and their works, full-text poems, short stories, and classic novels, as well as full text from over 400 literary journals.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full text of 285 journals in literature, history, international/cultural studies, and other fields within the humanities and social sciences.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database; full text of articles from over 5,300 journals, magazines and newspapers, plus image collections.

Even More Databases:

Research Databases (Main Page)

Databases (Searchable List)

E-Book Sampler

The American Dream: A Cultural History

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Lurching Toward Happiness in America

The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation

Arthur Miller's America: Theater and Culture in a Time of Change

Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940-1960

Searching the Databases

When you're ready to search the databases, you'll usually want to go to the Advanced Search page. Most of the databases have one.

Once you're on the Advanced Search page, you're going to have more than 1 search field now (usually 2-3 with the option to add more as needed). What to put in here? Think back to your brainstorming where you came up with alternate search terms and broke your topic down into its keywords.

The default AND joiner has the most limiting power. When you search for "cat AND dog," you will get fewer results than just searching for cat because the database will only bring back articles that mention both terms.

Scholarly Articles on the Web

Note: Scholarly articles tend to be behind paywalls. The same things that make them so reliable (authoritative authors, critical review, thoughtful analysis) also make them expensive.

Google Scholar skims the web for scholarly articles but not all of them will be accessible online for free. Check the databases to see if the library has access. If not, and you have a couple days to spare, you can also do an interlibrary loan (ILL) request to get the article for free.

Google Scholar Guide

Accessing the Databases

Access online library materials through the library databases!

To access the databases from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your LSC email/password or your 14-digit library barcode.

Discovery Search Search (nearly) all the library collections from one place, including articles, books and e-books, videos, and more.
more...less...
You can search without signing in, but once you click to access something, you'll be prompted to use your library barcode number or your LSC username/password.
A-Z Database List Sort & filter by subject and content types to find the specific collection you need.

What's a Database?

Psst -- what's a database?

In its most basic sense, a database (marked on these guides by the padlock icon ) is just a selection of information designed for you to search and retrieve stuff from it.

Amazon is a database you're probably familiar with: it's limited (only contains things you can buy through them) and retrievable (you can search and filter your results to find what you're looking for).

The library databases contain reputable, reliable sources of information to support researchers like you! This means everything from digital encyclopedias, e-books, scholarly journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, streaming videos, statistics, and more.

Assignment | Death of a Salesman Research Essay (Kane): Suggested Databases

Search the Library Collections