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ENGL 3923: Shakespeare, Race, and Appropriation

Advanced Search Techniques

Database search tips:

  • Use "quotation marks" to search for an exact phrase: "feminist theory".
  • Use * for truncation (to find variant spellings and endings of a word): parent* will find parent, parents, parental, parenthood, etc.; wom*n will find woman, women, womyn, etc.
  • For more complex search, use AND and OR (note that AND and OR must be in ALL CAPS for this to work correctly in CLIO):
    • AND finds records which have ALL the search terms you entered.
    • OR finds records which have one of the search terms you entered, as well as records which have more than one of the terms. OR finds MORE.
    • For more help with using AND and OR, check our guide to advanced/Boolean keyword searching.
  • Use parentheses ( ) to group terms:  border AND (migra* OR immigra*)

Strategies for Finding Articles

From a Citation

If you are trying to locate a specific article starting from a citation (ideally, one with the article's title, author(s), place of publication and date of publication), there are a few different ways you might go about your search:

  • Use CLIO Articles Search to search for the article by title. If the library's subscriptions give access to the article in full text, you should see a link that will lead you to the article. 
  • If the CLIO Articles Search does not lead you to the article, try the CLIO Catalog Search to search for the library's holdings of the periodical in which the article is published. This search will show you both print and digital holdings of journals, magazines, and other serials in which articles are published. 
  • If neither of the above searches leads you to the article you are looking for, try requesting a digital scan of the article using Interlibrary Loan. Make sure that you indicate the title, author, and inclusive page numbers you'll need (Note: You can also request book chapter scans using ILL). 

If you are interested in tracing where an article (or book, or book chapter) has been cited, try searching for it in Google Scholar. You can click on the "cited by" link under the source listing to lead to citations for these citing sources.

From a Topic/ Question/ Keywords

If you are looking for articles in conversation with a specific topic:

  • Try CLIO Articles for a really broad/ general search. 
  • Use a database (see below for many relevant examples) to hone in your search within a specific body of literature and/or specific area of publishing. 

Finding Articles: Broad and General Databases

Databases for Finding Articles (as well as Citations for Book Chapters and Other Sources)