This guide will provide an overview of how to use the library website to find articles and journals that are available online or in the library's print collections. It includes information on what serials are, different types of serial publications, and how to identify the best type of article or serial publications for your needs. Please contact Hayley Battaglia if you have any questions.
When you arrive at Buley Library's homepage, there are a several blue bars that expand into search boxes that search different groups of resources. Each search option will provided you with slightly different results beneficial for different uses, so it's good to have a basic understanding of what each one does.
This is like Googling across all library resources and searches almost everything in all of the library's collections including all print and electronic books, journals, databases, DVDs, CDs, streaming video, and more. You can can use facets on the left side the search results page to filter by different categories and narrow down your results. You can pop full article titles or citations into the search bar to see if we have access to an article you need.
Clicking this bar expands a drop-down menu that lists all the individual databases we subscribe to. Each database contains a specific collection of titles that could include journals, ebooks, videos, and other items. They often pertain to a specific subject or discipline.
If you know the name of a specific database you want to search in, you can select it from this menu. If you're not sure where to go or want to browse, you can click the link that says "view more results" to go to our Database A to Z list. Here, you can select a letter to view databases by title or you can choose a subject or other filter at the top of the page to look at the databases recommended for certain subjects.
Tip: Searching in a single database means that you will get fewer results than searching in SouthernSearch, which includes the content available in most of our databases.
Use Journal Finder to search for a specific journal title. This search option is good for when you want to find out if Buley has access to a specific journal title. Enter the exact title you are looking for to see what coverage dates are available. There are some advanced options that allow you to view lists of journal titles by associated subject and to search for specific article types.
Tip: If you want to find any article or journal content on a particular subject, look in SouthernSearch, a database with content in your subject area, EBSCO Articles or Google Scholar. If you have a specific journal title you want to find, use Journal Finder.
The databases we provide access to are created by different vendors, or brands, and EBSCO is one of these. When you go to Find EBSCO Articles, you are searching across all of the EBSCO "brand" databases to which we have access. Since we have a lot of EBSCO databases, this is a good place to start a search, especially if you are researching in the sciences. You should get a lot of results, but not as many as if you searched SouthernSearch, since EBSCO Articles won't include any resources we have outside of EBSCO databases.
Tip: Some of our EBSCO databases are abstract only, which means they tell you that an article exists and display the summary but won't provide access to the full text. In these cases, there should be a "Find @ SCSU" button next to the search result. If you click this, you will be able to see either a list of other databases that do provide the full text to that article or a link to request that article from interlibary loan if we have no access.
You can go straight to scholar.google.com and search for scholarly content, but if you make sure to use the search box on the Buley site, you will have the added benefit of an extra link beneath the search result that allows you to easily check for access at Buley Library. If you find a search result that looks interesting, you can then click "GetIt@Southern" to go to a page that will give you the information you need to access this content through the library. Visit our Google Scholar Guide for more detailed instructions about how to search and use Google Scholar's features.
Tip: You may need to click the ">>" beneath the search result in order to view the "GetIt@Southern" link.
This search box searches all of the content on the library website. Use this if you are looking for instructions, policies, LibGuides, scheduling information, etc. This will show you information about the library and how to use it as opposed to providing access to academic resources.