Check out the library's self-paced tutorial How do I search library databases? to learn the basics of database searches.
1. What is Mardigian Search and why should I use it?
- Mardigian Search is the library's Discovery search box, which looks through all of the library's databases at once.
- Mardigian Search is great for:
- finding out what's been studied in your research area
- finding sources about interdisciplinary topics
- Check out the library's self-paced tutorial What are library databases and why should I use them? for more information
2. How do I search for articles?
- Identify the keywords of your topic and use those as your search words
- Each article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make them searchable - you want your search words to match those tags
- Words like factors, effects, issues, relationships are usually not used as tags - don't include them as search words:
3. How do I search for articles that are specific to Southeast Michigan?
- Add Southeast Michigan to your search
- If you're interested in specific locations within Southeast Michigan, use those in your search
- Counties: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Tri-County
- Cities: Detroit, Metro Detroit, Warren, Dearborn, Hamtramck
- Also try Metro-Detroit
- Example: Inequality in Detroit
- Search: inequality detroit
- Search inequality "metro detroit"
- Putting quotations marks around "metro detroit" searches for it as a phrase, not separate words
- Detroit has had a lot of peer-reviewed journal articles written about it, but other counties and cities in Southeast Michigan have not. You may just want to do a search for the country/city you're interested in and see what comes up.
- Example: Hamtramck (there are 39 peer-reviewed journal articles tagged with Hamtramck)
- Example: "Oakland Country" (there are 163 peer-reviewed journal articles tagged with this phrase)
- Putting quotations marks around "Oakland County" searches for it as a phrase, not separate words
- Example: "southeast michigan" (there are 1476 peer-reviewed journal articles tagged with this phrase)
- Example: Detroit (there are over 55,000 peer-reviewed journal articles tagged with Detroit)
4. How do I focus the search results to journal articles from peer-reviewed journals?
- Use the Refine Your Search sidebar in the list of search results to focus your search results
- Check Peer Reviewed
- Check Journal Article under the Content Type heading
5. I'm looking for a specific article or book. How do I find out if the library has it?
- Enter the title into the search box, removing all punctuation
6. How do I preview the abstract/summary of articles in the list of search results?
- Click on Quick Look below the article title to look at the abstract of the article
7. How do I access the article so I can read the whole thing?
- Click on Full Text Online
- Look for pdf Full Text or HTML Full Text links
