F&M College Library

CNX 140: Who Owns Culture?

A library guide to help you with your assignment for Professor Aleci's CNX140 class, held in Fall 2019.

Databases to Search

There are many different types of databases that you can consult in your research for this class. Generally, it's a good idea to search in databases based on the outcomes you're looking for - so if you're looking for a scholarly article in the sciences, try a science database. For an article in the humanities, use something like JSTOR or ProjectMuse, since they're both interdisciplinary. 

Interdisciplinary

 

Art & Art History

 

Social Sciences

Newspapers

Take a look in the following databases if you're looking for newspaper articles. Pay attention to the database summaries listed below, as these will tell you more about what years the databases cover. 

Constructing Search Strings

Remember: Databases don't speak English. 

Construct search strings to effectively find resources in databases. 

Research Question: "What effect does media have on teens' body image?"

A good example of a search string: 
"body image" AND media AND teens

A not great example of a search string: 
media's effects on teen body image

Tips for Constructing Search Strings

  • Use AND, OR, or NOT to expand, refine, or edit your search. AND will join two words or phrases together and search for both. NOT will search for one topic but not the other. And OR will search for either term you enter. 
  • Use quotes around phrases with two or more words. 
  • Boil your research question down into main ideas. For example, in the research question above, the main topics are: body image, teens, and media. 
  • Try using wildcards if you're looking for multiple spellings of a word. Like this: search wom*n, and you'll get results for woman, women, and womyn.