HCC's library catalog (Primo) allows keyword searching for magazine and journal articles, news articles, book/film reviews, interviews, and more. You can use the search box above to search the catalog. When searching in the catalog, type in the title of the book, film, or show you're researching with quotation marks around it. Try adding a year or author's last name if the title is vague. For example, "the graduate" 1967 or "get out" Jordan Peele.
Make sure to look at the "Filter your results" options on the left side of the page for "Resource Type". For journal and magazine articles about your title, select "Articles", which is usually at the top of the list. For book and film reviews on the title you searched for, select "Reviews". For newspaper articles, select "Newspapers search", which is listed at the bottom of the resource types.
The catalog does not have a filter for interviews, but you can include the word interview in your search to pull results that include interviews. For example, try searching for "citizen kane" interview. There is also not a filter for magazine articles, specifically, but after selecting Articles from the Resource Type filter, you can tell the catalog to exclude peer-reviewed journals in the filters, under "Availability" (as seen in the example). Most of the results will then be articles from magazines and less scholarly journals. You can select "Peer-reviewed Journals" instead if you want more academic articles written by experts.
If it's a work that's been written about often, like Citizen Kane or Schindler's List, try adding keywords like feminism, gender, analysis, race, class, interview, capitalist or capitalism (hint: you can type capitalis* and it will search for both), etc. Wait to add keywords to your search until you've searched for the title. There might be great sources on the first page after narrowing down to articles, and you might find that you don't need to narrow it down with keywords at all. For explanations and more help on searching the library catalog, scroll down to the box on this page titled "How To Improve Your Search" > Catalog Search.
Get to the databases page by clicking on Databases A-Z at the top of the library catalog page or from the Research Tools menu on the library's homepage.
Try using similar keywords that you used when searching the catalog, explained above. Type the title of your book, film, or show in the search bar, and surround it in quotation marks. Add a year or author if necessary to narrow down the title. Some databases will show the correct search in a dropdown menu that you can click (e.g., if you start typing get out, it will say Get Out (Motion Picture) in the dropdown. Wait to add keywords to your search until you've searched for the title. The databases won't have as many results as the catalog, and you might find that you don't need to narrow it down with keywords at all.
Here are some great databases to start out with. Most of them have the word Literature in the database name, but the Gale and EBSCO ones also have results for films and television programs.
Tips and tricks for searching in the library databases are in the next box on this page, "How To Improve Your Search" > Database Search.
From Canvas, find “HCC Libraries Online” in the list menu of one of your courses, and follow that link. Or go to the library homepage (hccfl.edu/library), and access the catalog from the “Search HCC Libraries with Primo” search bar or sign in link.
Think of a few words or phrases that represent your subject and thesis statement.
Examples: respiration global warming education Ernest Hemingway
You can leave out small words like articles (“a”, “an”, “the”) and prepositions (“of”, “for”, “at”), unless they’re a part of a title or phrase, like “grapes of wrath”. You can also leave out words like “relationship”, “cause”, “effect”, “comparison”, etc. For example, replace the effect of socioeconomic status on health to the simpler “socioeconomic status” AND health. (You’ll learn about the quotation marks and capital AND below.)
Keep track of your keywords in your notes so you can add more and change your search terms as you go. (Also keep track of the sources you find and where you found them.)
Using AND connects keywords and narrows down search results. It tells the system it needs to search for items with both one keyword and the other because you need sources that mention both.
Example: exercise AND health
Using OR searches for multiple keywords and expands the search results. It tells the system it needs to search for items with at least one of the keywords—one keyword or the other, or both—because you need sources with at least one of them.
Example: physical activity OR exercise
Using NOT eliminates unwanted keywords to narrow your results. It tells the system to ignore the words that aren’t relevant to your search.
Example: exercise NOT running
Use quotation marks to do “phrase searching”. Enclosing phrases, names, and titles in quotation marks ensures that the search engine keeps all the words together in the right order, instead of searching for them as individual keywords.
Examples: “global warming” “mental health” “feast or famine”
Using parentheses is a great way to keep your search organized, and your Boolean operators separated.
Example: (exercise OR “physical activity” OR workout) AND (health OR wellness)
You can shorten, or “truncate”, your keyword and add an asterisk (*) at the end of the root word. This finds multiple letters at the end of (or within) a word, so it can search for alternate endings of a root word.
Example: expen* searches for expense, expensive, expenditure, expend, etc.
arch*logy searches for archeology and archaeology
You can replace a single letter in your keyword with a question mark to tell the search to find multiple versions of that word.
Example: wom?n searches for woman and women
The Advanced Search has Boolean options already ready to use in boxes that you can fill out. You can use a different keyword/phrase on each line, and tell it whether you want it to be AND, OR, or NOT. You can also narrow down the field of the word/phrase (title, author, subject, etc.) and whether you want the results to contain your word/phrase or start with it. The Advanced Search also has some of the search limiters available in the search results, like material type, language, and publication range.
When your search results appear, you can narrow your search by selecting filters that specify what you’re looking for. You can select only things that are available online, things available on the shelf, or only peer-reviewed journals. You can select the library a physical item is held at, the resource type (material type, like article or book), or the publication range. You can also narrow down the subject or genre.
To find more results, think of other topics or areas related to your research. For example, if your topic is higher education, you might also try searching for things like college, university, professor, or graduate school.
Find more search terms by thinking of synonyms or similar terms. If your topic and key phrase is climate change, try other keywords like global warming, greenhouse gas, pollution, or carbon emissions. If you're searching for a movie, try using the terms motion picture or film. You can use a thesaurus to find synonyms if you're stuck.
From the library homepage or the library catalog, select the “Databases A-Z” link to go to the databases page. More frequently used databases are listed on the right side of the page, or you can narrow down by subject by clicking on the “All Subjects” dropdown menu. You may have to browse the databases to see which has the best search experience and results for you. Flip for a list of recommended databases.
Think of a few words or phrases that represent your subject and thesis statement.
Examples: respiration global warming education Ernest Hemingway
You can leave out small words like articles (“a”, “an”, “the”) and prepositions (“of”, “for”, “at”), unless they’re a part of a title or phrase, like “grapes of wrath”. You can also leave out words like “relationship”, “cause”, “effect”, “comparison”, etc. For example, replace the effect of socioeconomic status on health to the simpler “socioeconomic status” AND health.
Keep track of your keywords in your notes so you can add more and change your search terms as you go. (Also keep track of the sources you find and where you found them.)
Not all databases use Boolean search methods, but most do. If the methods below do not work, try using other search options provided by the database, like Advanced Search.
AND, OR, and NOTUsing AND connects keywords and narrows down search results. It tells the system it needs to search for items with both one keyword and the other because you need sources that mention both.
Example: exercise AND health
Using OR searches for multiple keywords and expands the search results. It tells the system it needs to search for items with at least one of the keywords—one keyword or the other, or both—because you need sources with at least one of them.
Example: physical activity OR exercise
Using NOT eliminates unwanted keywords to narrow your results. It tells the system to ignore the words that aren’t relevant to your search.
Example: exercise NOT running
Use quotation marks to do “phrase searching”. Enclosing phrases, names, and titles in quotation marks ensures that the search engine keeps all the words together in the right order, instead of searching for them as individual keywords.
Examples: “global warming” “mental health” “feast or famine”
Using parentheses is a great way to keep your search organized, and your Boolean operators separated.
Example: (exercise OR “physical activity” OR workout) AND (health OR wellness)
You can shorten, or “truncate”, your keyword and add an asterisk (*) at the end of the root word. This finds multiple letters at the end of (or within) a word, so it can search for alternate endings of a root word.
Example: expen* searches for expense, expensive, expenditure, expend, etc.
arch*logy searches for archeology and archaeology
You can replace a single letter in your keyword with a question mark to tell the search to find multiple versions of that word.
Example: wom?n searches for woman and women
The Advanced Search of most research databases have Boolean options already ready in boxes that you can fill out. You can use a different keyword/phrase on each line, and tell it whether you want it to be AND, OR, or NOT. You can also narrow down the line’s field by keyword, title, author, etc.
The Advanced Search also often has other search limiters available to check off or fill out, like full text, peer-reviewed, document type, publication date, and/or subject.
Unlike most library catalogs, some research databases have a feature to browse through subjects and then materials. Several Infobase and Gale databases let you browse general subjects or issues to find a narrower topic that has its own profile page with sources (reference entries, articles, news, videos, etc.) ready for you to use.
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