Visit our All About Articles research guide to learn:
Google Scholar searches the same kind of articles, books, and other scholarly literature that you would find using the library's databases. It can be a great place to start your research and is useful for:
Keep in mind that while searching in Google Scholar is convenient and can be a great starting point, it's unlikely that you will have access to all of the results. Using OneSearch or individual databases means you'll have less to sift through and your results will be more likely to match your needs.
On-Campus? Google Scholar will automatically display links for access to the full text of search results.
Off Campus? Read our FAQ to find out how to connect Google Scholar to PC library resources.
This section is a derivative of "Using Google Scholar" by University of Connecticut, licensed under CC BY-NC.
Click on the links to find answers to some of our most popular questions about articles.
You can use One Search to explore articles and other digital content across most of our databases, or consider narrowing your search by utilizing databases that focus on specific topics, areas, and time periods. See the list below for our collection of history databases.
Library databases will give you instant access to thousands of sources, including biographical information, historical newspaper articles, and academic journals. While some databases cover ebooks, images, or films, most focus on articles. Here is a sample of library databases that may be helpful for this subject area. View the complete list of history databases on our A-Z Database List.
Academic journals, primary sources, biographies, streaming audio and video, and news cover a variety of historical topics, people and places related to World History. Citations provided.
A wide-ranging collection on African-American history and culture, including some pro/con viewpoints on historical issues. History of African civilizations, Africans in the Colonial World, the Civil War, Emancipation, and contemporary issues. Citations provided.
Vast collection of history of Native Americans and the Americas, including South and Central America. Biographies, scholarly essays, primary source documents. Citations provided.
History and culture of Latinos living in the US back to the 1490s. Includes Maya, Inca, Aztec histories, the Spanish Conquest. Covers up to contemporary times and issues. Citations provided.
While you can write an entire sentence in Google and get relevant search results, databases aren't quite as friendly. Using keywords, or the main words that are related to your research question, helps you search smarter and get better results.
As you begin to develop your topic, start making a list of keywords that you can use in your search (there are many different ways to say the same thing, so you might need a lot of them). Once you come up with a list of words, don't be afraid to try them all! Trying different combinations can give you different results each time you search, so keep playing around and see what you come up with.
Learn more about using keywords from California State University, San Bernardino:
Use connector terms, called Boolean Operators, when you want to combine search terms. There are three main Boolean operators: AND, OR, and NOT. Very briefly, here's how they work:
You'll probably find yourself using AND or OR the most when searching the databases, but it's helpful to know how all three work in case you ever need to create a more complex search.
Use quotation marks to help you search for an exact phrase. This technique narrows your search. For example, using the phrase "sleep disorders" (with quotation marks) makes sure your search results will have that exact phrase somewhere in your results. Other examples:
"virtual environment" "cost benefit analysis" "social media"
Use truncation to search for different endings of the same root word, or to replace letters. To search for all alternate endings of a word, search with the root of the word and then an asterisk*.
Pollut* - This search will find all variations of the word, including pollute, pollutes, polluted, pollution.
Using the truncation strategy can help speed up your searching.