About Databases & Articles
CSM Library subscribes to many databases that contain millions of free, full-text journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. Some databases also contain films, videos, and images.
Get the Most Out of Your Searches
Here are some tips for getting the most out of your searches:
- Search using only a few words or search terms. The more focused your search words, the more focused your results will be but adding too many words will drastically reduce your results. For example:
- Searching with the word police will bring back too many results
- Searching with the phrase how does community policing impact drug use in communities will bring back too few results
- Focus on the main ideas to get the best results: community policing drugs
- A lot of research and searching is trial and error, so try combinations of different search words to see different results, and always try more than one search. It's hard to get it perfect on the first try.
Use Filters to Limit and Refine your Results
You can use the filters and limiters in a databases to refine your results. Here are some examples:
- Limit by year: If you're getting too many outdated articles, try limiting to the last 10 years to see if that helps.
- Limit by resource type: Too many scholarly journals in your results? Try limiting to Magazines and Newspapers.
