Because digital media studies includes a variety of disciplines - media theory, history, philosophy, journalism, television, radio, electronic media (including the Internet and video games), politics, public policy, intellectual property, copyright law, and so on - no single resource (or call number in the Stacks) will encompass every facet under its umbrella. If there's something you need that you haven't found on this guide, contact me for a research consultation!
Once you have one (or more) useful article on a topic, use the references at the end of article to find more sources on your topic using our Citation Search tool. This helps you see what was written previous to your current article, often called citing backward.
Use Google Scholar to see who has cited your article after it was published. This helps you see what has been written after your article was published, citing forward.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Justina Elmore, University of Rochester.
Ask yourself what type of source is more likely to have the information you need and how will I use this source?:
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:
or 
buttons.Understand the scope of the database you select. Ask yourself:
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:
