The starting place for your library search is through your research question. A well-articulated, focused question is required for an effective search of article databases and library catalogs. Without a good question it is difficult to determine the terminology for your search. If you don't have a well-defined research problem, don't panic! At least not yet. Use the library to come up with your research problem. Search Skyline for subject encyclopedias and browse the current periodicals area to see what other researchers are doing. With every thing you read ask, "Why?" or "How would results be different if. .?"

Tip: in the discussion section of many research articles the author proposes further areas of inquiry. This means they are giving you ideas!

Books
Skyline - Search for items in Auraria Library
Prospector - Search for books in local libraries (ca. 3 working days for delivery).
WorldCat - Books and media available worldwide. Free delivery (1 - 2 weeks) is available. Make sure your item is not available through Skyline or Prospector before initiating an interlibrary loan request.

Article Databases
You can search for articles using databases or indexes. Many provide the full text of the article while some databases display a link to library holdings or a full text search. The links below will list relevant resources under article databases and indexes.

Multidisciplinary databases: Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic Index ASAP are general databases that provide coverage of criminal justice, legal, and sociology journals. Many articles are full text. You may need to limit to "peer reviewed" or "refereed publications" when searching for research articles.

• History Databases - America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts are just two of several databases on historical criminal cases.
• MultiCultural Databases . Chicano database, Ethnic NewsWatch, Sociological Abstracts and others will provide a more well rounded view of your topics
• Psychology databases. PsycInfo is the primary index to scholarly research in psychology. ScienceDirect is also excellent, and provides much full text.
• Education databases. ERIC and Education Full Text for issues relating to juvenile crime programs, DARE programs, at risk students, etc. .

Finding the Article

Many scholarly journal articles are not full text online. Others may be available full text, but not through specific databases. Use Skyline and Goldrush to determine availability of the article. Some journals are only available online, these will be indicated in Skyline (example). Other journals are only available in the library. These are on the first floor Periodicals area.

• Goldrush - provides links to databases that index or have full text of the journal.
• Periodical Title search in Skyline - local journal holdings and online links if available.
• ILLIAD - If the library does not have access to the article, use ILLIAD/ InterLibrary Loan to request a copy. The article will be mailed to you.

Citation styles

Style manuals are tools for giving credit to the original authors. Use this QUICK ONLINE GUIDE to citing styles (B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library at Long Island University). The two main citing styles in use for your subject are MLA an APA. Check your syllabus for the preferred style.

MLA - MLA handbook for writers of research papers REF DESK LB2369 .G53

APA - Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. REF DESK BF 76.7 P82

Doing effective searches online - Boolean Searching

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: death penalty and history  -- will retrieve all articles with both death penalty and history in the article.

OR - Expands a search
example: death penalty or capital punishment - will retrieve all articles with just death penalty, all articles with just capital punishment, and all articles with both death penalty and capital punishment.

NOT - Removes a term from a search
example: death penalty not capital punishment  -- will retrieve all articles about death penalty but remove all articles with any mention of capital punishment.  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:  history and (death penalty or capital punishment)  -- will retrieve articles on "history and death penalty” and "history and capital punishment."
• 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 let's 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 Resources

Lii.org (Librarians' Index to the Internet) is a well maintained source of quality web sites in many subject areas. By doing a search on police administration or community policing you will get several quality sites.

Google Advanced Search use the domains of gov or edu to be more specific.

Tip: If you are searching on the Internet, remember the Library search tips and think about the reliability and accuracy of the information.