It is important to remember that you choose a topic which is not only interesting to you but also appropriate to your capabilities and to the time available.

Most databases are not 100% full text however, so there are two or three steps to get any article.

1. Identify the title of the journal. Be sure not to confuse this with the title of the article.
2. Search Skyline by Journal/Periodical Title, typing in the name of the journal title. If Auraria Library has the journal, a record will appear that shows complete information (status, location, call number, format). If we don't have it, go to the next step.
3. Search Gold Rush by Periodical Title. If Auraria Library owns a database that has full text from the journal, a record will appear that shows complete information (database name and a link to the database). If we don't have it, go to the next step.
4. ILL (Interlibrary Loan)- getting copies of journal articles that are not full text online. Some of the databases listed above contain full text articles online. Request the article through Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery (ILL) via ILLIAD. This works really well, they mail you the article for free to your home. The downside is that it might take a week or two. So, give yourself time. If you don't have the time, go to Prospector and determine which library, if any, owns the journal locally. You can go to that library and make a copy of that article.

To find specific sources:

Search Skyline for books, e-books, journal titles and other materials in the Auraria Library on econometric, politics, and economy.

Search Gold Rush to find what database indexes a journal in your topic and whether the articles are available full text or not from Auraria or from all the larger Colorado Front Range libraries

Search Prospector for books, e-books, journal titles and other materials in the major Colorado libraries

Search WorldCat for books, e-books, journal titles and other materials worldwide, including your local university or college library

Reference sources

Tip: A word search in Skyline using your term and the word "encyclopedias" will pull up specialized encyclopedias on the topic (example: aviation and encyclopedias or weather and encyclopedias).

Books on aviation, weather and other topics are found under the Library of Congress Classification System in the Auraria Library and other academic libraries.

For instance, in the Auraria Library you can look under the subject aviation or select another subject heading that would be most useful. You can also do a keyword search on aviation and you will find many items that may be useful.

DOING EFFECTIVE SEARCHES ONLINE

You can save time and get better information by learning how to apply Boolean logic and other search strategies to your online searches. All online keyword searches use some form of Boolean logic.

Boolean Logic allows you to combine keywords to make a search more precise. The three combinations are: AND, OR, NOT
AND - Narrows a search
example: airplanes and weather -- will retrieve all articles with both airplanes and weather in the article.

OR - Expands a search
example: airplanes or pilots -- will retrieve all articles with just airplanes, all articles with just pilots, and all articles with both airplanes and pilots.

NOT - Removes a term from a search
example: aviation not aerospace -- will retrieve all articles about all topics on aviation but remove all articles with any mention of aerospace. Use NOT sparingly because you often lose many useful pieces of information.

You can combine and, or, or not in your searches by using parentheses.

example: weather and (aerospace or aviation) -- will retrieve articles on "weather and aviation" and "weather and aerospace."

Most systems also let you limit your search by looking for exact phrases, limiting by date, company name, images, etc. Read the help screens to see what each system lets you do.

CAUTION: How you use Boolean logic varies in different databases and different search engines E.G. SOME SYSTEMS USE "+" INSTEAD OF "and". Find this information in the help screens.

For more about effective searching, ask a reference librarian or checkout this site on Boolean Searching.

Internet Sources

Aviation Weather Center

FAA - Federal Aviation Administration

Google Guide - use this guide to get the most out of searching Google.