Use databases to find articles on your topic. Some databases will have the full text of the entire article available within the database, others will only have a citation for the article. Use the Find-It button to determine how to access the full article when there is no electronic full-text. Read more about the Find-It Button and Understanding Scholarly Communication below, after the list of databases!
You can now access the library databases by using your SU username and password -- the same one that you use for email and MyClasses.
The Find-It Button
It's a bit like magic, really. The Find It button does three things:
The Find It button is YOUR FRIEND!!!
You can also use the Citation Linker, another fabulously cool tool. It is useful when you are reading an article and it cites another article that looks like it would be super useful for your research. You plug in the citation information for that article and can find out how to access it, whether it be electronically, physically in the library, or through Interlibrary Loan. It works the same way as Find It, but you don't have to be in a database.
Academic Search Ultimate offers access to an unprecedented collection of resources including journals, magazines, reports, books, and videos. Many are peer-reviewed and full-text. Subjects range from astronomy to zoology.
Search the full text of these newspapers: The Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.
Why should you use the library and not just use Google to find some good websites?
Most of the time, scholarly publications are not available to the general public, nor are they available for free on the internet. Individuals or organizations (such as a library) subscribe to these publications. Because subscriptions are expensive, many choose to access this content through libraries.
Often, content from scholarly journals is indexed in databases that the library subscribes to. The content is on the web, but it is not accessible unless you are affiliated with the institution who is subscribing. It isn’t the same thing as just finding a website through a regular Google search. Sometimes the full text of the article is available through the database; other times it is only a citation to the article and you will need to find the print version of the article in the library or order the article through interlibrary loan if we don’t subscribe to it.
So, basically what I'm saying is that the only way you can access this scholarly information for free is by using the library databases!