LibGuides: FWS 121

Choosing the Right Database

Ask yourself what type of source is more likely to have the information you need and how will I use this source?:

News articles?
Scholarly journal articles?
Empirical studies?
Data and statistics?
Primary documents?

Deciding the most likely source will help determine which database to use. Different databases are composed of information from different types of sources. BEAM is a method for helping you decide how you might use a source.

Ask yourself if the database you select provides full-text, or only citations and /or abstracts:

If the database you need to use does not have full-text, use the or buttons.
If you have a citation, use the Citation Search Tool to locate the full-text.

Understand the scope of the database you select. Ask yourself:

Does this database cover the subject area (discipline) I really need, or is there a better, more focused database?
Does this database provide indexing for the date range I need?
Will this database point me to or provide the full-text for articles written during the time period that is appropriate for my research need?

Although retrospective materials are sometimes added to databases, the actual article you need might not be available electronically, because it is too old or too new.

Ask yourself if there are special advanced features that can improve your search results or make searching easier:

Does this database allow me to limit my search to a specific date range, or to a particular magazine or journal?
Does this database allow me to email, download, or export articles to my citation manager like Zotero or RefWorks?
Are there features that can help me to generate better search terms, like the Thesaurus feature or the "Browse Subject Headings" features in some databases?

Databases

JSTOR
Full text articles in many disciplines.

Subject areas include African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, business, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology, statistics. The University of Rochester Libraries currently subscribes to the following multidisciplinary JSTOR Collections: Arts and Sciences I through XV. JSTOR also packages their content in disciplinary collections; however, the only ones of these that we have licensed are the Biological Sciences segment and the first of the Business collections. For alumni access, see also Alumni Library Gateway.
Project Muse
Full text of scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.
Humanities Full Text
Identifies articles on art, architecture, dance, folklore, myth, film, journalism, music and religion. Many with links to full text.
Social Sciences Full Text
Identifies articles in sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, politics and law, many with links to full text.

Abstracts included from 1994-current; full text for many articles from 1994-current.
Music Index
Identifies articles on music.
APA PsycINFO via ProQuest
Identifies articles, books and dissertations in psychology and related subjects, many with links to full text, 1806 to current.

Newspapers & Magazines

New York Times - ProQuest
Full text articles published in the New York Times via the ProQuest platform.

Includes international, national and New York regional news, in addition to business, science, medicine, arts, sports and lifestyle news. Some issues for 1953, 1962-1963, 1965, 1978 were never published due to pressman's strikes. No Sunday issue was published until April 21, 1861.
Wall Street Journal - ProQuest
Full text articles published in the Wall Street Journal.
Democrat and Chronicle (1999-present)
Full text of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (1999-present).
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Full text - articles, ads, pictures - of New York Times (1851 - 2011) & other major papers. Click "More" link for their names.

Atlanta Constitution (1868 - 1984) Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003) Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) Baltimore Sun (1837-1992) Boston Globe (1872 - 1985) Chicago Defender (1909-1975) Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1993) Christian Science Monitor (1908 - 2004) Globe and Mail (1844-2014) Irish Times (1859 - 2016) Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1993) New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993) New York Times (1851 - 2013) Some issues for 1953, 1962-1963, 1965, 1978 were never published due to pressman's strikes. No Sunday issue was published until April 21, 1861. New York Tribune (1841-1962) Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002) South China Morning Post (1903-1998) Times of India (1838-2008) Wall Street Journal (1889 - 2000) Washington Post (1877 - 2000)
America's Historical Newspapers
Full text of American newspapers from colonial times to the 1920's. Also known as Early American Newspapers. From Readex.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, 1880-2000
Full text of complete runs of major trade and consumer magazines. Primary source material reflects the development of the entertainment industry as it evolved over the 20th century. Archive 1: Music, Radio and The Stage contains 17 titles such as Billboard (1894-2000), New Music Express (NME) (1946-2000) and The Stage (1880-2000. Archive 2: Film and Television includes 10 titles such as Variety (1905-2000), Boxoffice
(1920-2000) and Broadcast (1960-2000).
Alt-Press Watch
Full text newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press.

Streaming video

Kanopy (1920 - current)
Kanopy is a streaming video database with over 20,000 movie titles from a large group of film producers including the Criterion Collection, PBS, Kino Lorber Edu, Documentary Educational Resources Collection, BBC Active Collection, and many others. All films have Public Performance Rights (PPR).
Swank Digital Campus
Swank provides film streaming to academic institutions. Here you will find films from major Hollywood film studios, both “classic” and contemporary.
Instructors: if you would like a Swank film linked to your course’s Blackboard page and need help, contact Tom Clifford tclifford@library.rochester.edu.
Films on Demand: Master Academic Package
Individually selected titles from more than 800 international producers to bring a wide variety of the most relevant videos to suit the unique instructional needs of every subject.

List of all Streaming Video Sources at UR

Search Articles & Books

Books, journal articles and just about everything else available at the University of Rochester can be found through Articles & Books, at http://library.rochester.edu

By default, Articles & Books searches across all of the available metadata—e.g., searching for Harry Potter Rowling will retrieve all of the books, book reviews, newspaper & magazine articles, DVDs and more where that search phrase is present. To find something more specific, start off with an Advanced Search, or drill down using Article & Books' filtering features, which show up on the left hand side of your search results.