If you have problems logging into library databases, see:
Put it all together:
Here are database-friendly searches, with unnecessary words removed:
Instead of: "What are the causes of test anxiety?"
Use this: "test anxiety" AND cause
Instead of: "What's the effect of the pandemic on mental health of college students?"
Use this: COVID-19 AND "mental health" AND "college students"
Instead of: "Does using social media increase anxiety among teenagers?"
Use this: "social media" AND anxiety AND teen*
Database searching summary:
If you're new to searching specific databases, these tutorials may help:
The United States Constitution: One Document, Many Choices by 
Whose Child Am I? Unaccompanied, Undocumented Children in U.S. Immigration Custody by 
Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial by 
A New Leaf by 
American Genesis by 
Everyone Is African by 
Are We Getting Smarter? : Rising IQ in the Twenty-first Century by 
Bad Pharma: how drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by 
Bullying by 
Capital Punishment by 
Clashing Views on Psychological Issues by 
Crazy-Proofing High School Sports by 
Denying Science by 
Hate Crimes by 
Professional Athletes by 
Eat, Drink, and Be Wary by 
Prescription Drug Abuse by 
Racial Profiling by 
Sexual Harassment and Bullying: a Guide to Keeping Kids Safe and Holding Schools Accountable by 
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Moral Issues, Expanded by 
Speech and Harm by 
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues by 
The Anatomy of Violence by 
The App Generation by 
The Columbine School Shootings by 
The Culture of Beauty by 
The Pipeline and the Paradigm by 
The Right to Be Parents: LGBT Families and the Transformation of Parenthood by 
Weird Life: the Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own by 
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides?: Abortion, Neonatal Care, Assisted Dying, and Capital Punishment by These reference databases offer overviews of your issue, and offers ideas to narrow your topic.
ProQuest Central will search millions of articles: newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals, to fill in gaps in your research.
Here are links to two article searches and an example of a peer-reviewed (scholarly) article.
This is an example of a scholarly article, found by clicking "Peer-reviewed" on the search page.
How do you know a "Scholarly Article" (also referred to as academic articles or peer-reviewed articles) when you come across one?
Articles in different fields may differ slightly. A scholarly article comparing two works of literature will lack data, graphs, and discussions of methodology. A scientific paper about a new medication SHOULD have all of these things:
These databases cover a wide range of world events and topics:
These e-books can all be found by searching their titles in the library's catalog and following the link to access full-text. Thousands more titles are available through our catalog and other e-book databases:
Generational Poverty by Are the impoverished victims of circumstance or are they contributing to their situations through their own actions and principles? This perplexing question does not have a simple answer.
Divided by "Divided" collects the writings of leading scholars, activists, and journalists to provide an illuminating, multifaceted look at inequality in America, exploring its devastating implications in areas as diverse as education, justice, health care, social mobility, and political representation. Provocative and eminently readable, here is an essential resource for anyone who cares about the future of America and compelling evidence that inequality can be ignored only at the nation's peril.
Borderline Citizens by (Accessible through E-book Central) Borderline Citizens explores the intersection of U.S. colonial power and Puerto Rican migration.Borderline Citizens deftly shows the dynamic and contested meaning of American citizenship.
How America Got Its Guns by In the United States more than thirty thousand deaths each year can be attributed to firearms. This book on the history of guns in America examines the Second Amendment and the laws and court cases it has spawned. The author's thorough and objective account shows the complexities of the issue, which are so often reduced to bumper-sticker slogans, and suggests ways in which gun violence in this country can be reduced.
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed by Like King, many ostensibly “nonviolent” civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, civil rights scholar Charles E. Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s.
Police Use of Excessive Force in Disorganized Neighborhoods by Hays proposes a new theory for predicting police use of force. He argues that as neighborhood poverty, racial/ethnic differences, and residential mobility increase, it becomes more difficult for residents to know each other, to trust each other, and to help each other defend their neighborhoods from criminals and from rogue police officers.
Protect, Serve, and Deport by Between 2007 and 2012, Nashville’s local jail participated in an immigration enforcement program called 287(g), which turned jail employees into immigration officers who identified over ten thousand removable immigrants for deportation. The vast majority of those identified for removal were not serious criminals but Latino residents arrested by local police for minor violations. Protect, Serve, and Deport explains how local politics, state laws, institutional policies, and police practices work together to deliver immigrants into an expanding federal deportation system, conveying powerful messages about race, citizenship, and belonging.
Playing with the Boys by Athletic contests help define what we mean in America by "success." By keeping women from "playing with the boys" on the false assumption that they are inherently inferior, society relegates them to second-class citizens. In this forcefully argued book, Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano show in vivid detail how women have been unfairly excluded from participating in sports
No Slam Dunk by The continuing barriers to full and equal participation for young people, the far lower pay for most elite-level women athletes, and the continuing dearth of fair and equal media coverage all underline how much still has yet to change before we see gender equality in sports.Stuck on finding those last few sources? Consider using a video database. They provide MLA citations.
Watch archived news programs, documentaries, educational series, and more that can be used as a paper reference!
Mouse over these databases for descriptions.
The English Division at SUNY Adirondack sponsors several programs that bring writers from all genres and forms to campus to share their work with us. These visits are almost always recorded by SUNY Adirondack's IT department, and posted to the SUNY Adirondack Youtube page for you to watch any time!
What programs will I find on the Youtube page?:
- The Writer's Project : Published writers across every genre come to read selections of their work, talk about their process, and answer audience questions
- 100,000 Poets for Change: Professional and amateur poets gather to share their work and garner hope, courage, community, and support for important causes and challenges in our society, such as the climate crisis.
- The College Lecture Series: Faculty and staff of SUNY Adirondack give 45-60 minute presentations to give the college community updates on their personal research projects.
Alternate search engines offer more privacy for searching the free web.
This page describes how to do a Google Advanced Search: