Search Tips
Good searching can shorten your research time significantly. Here are some tips from the pros:
-
Use quotation marks around a phrase to inform the search engine to look for exactly the phrase you enter- for example "body image" or "work-life balance" or "beauty standards" or "forced sterilization" .
-
To uncover patient experiences/stories, consider applying the following keywords and/or phrases in your search strings:
-
patient and (experience* or perspective*)
-
patient and interview*
-
"qualitative study"
-
"personal narrative"
-
ethnography
-
-
When searching for a keyword with multiple variations (ex. "education", "educators") use the root form of the word and add an asterisk (*). This means using child* will retrieve items that have all variations-- "children", "child", "childhood", etc.
-
Start simple! Begin with 1-2 targeted key words and then make adjustments (more terms, less terms, different terms) depending on your search results. Pay attention to keywords, phrases that are used in highly relevant resources.
-
Use the built-in database filters to focus your results- most interfaces let you limit by publication date, subject, format and more
-
Finally, ZSR Librarians are here to help you find the best sources for your research assignment!
ZSR Books & eBooks
General Databases
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowProvides access to journals covering the social sciences, humanities, education, and more. Good general-purpose database for researching most topics. Coverage: 1985-
- ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new windowContains articles from magazines, newspapers, and journals. Areas included: business, health, education, psychology, science, sports, and literature. Coverage: 1986-
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowA full-text database of archived issues of academic journals. Since JSTOR is a backfiles project, a typical coverage range is the beginning of a journal until three or five years ago. Artstor images are now integrated into JSTOR. Supported in part by the Dail Endowment Fund. Coverage: Varies
Subject Databases (Secondary Sources)
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles about the history and culure of the United States and Canada. Publications include peer-reviewed journals, magazines, dissertations, books, and more. Access is limited to six simultaneous users. Note: For world history topics, use the Historical Abstracts database. Coverage: 1964-
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new windowProvides access to periodicals, journals, and edited works, with an emphasis on archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics. Coverage: Late 19th century-present
- APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts to journal articles, book chapters, books and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines (sociology, linguistics, anthropology, education, medicine, law, physiology, business, psychiatry, nursing, pharmacology). Links to full text in PsycARTICLES and to other resources in ZSR. Coverage: 1806-
- Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowContains scholarly literature on all aspects of communication studies, including discourse, linguistics, media studies, and rhetoric. Coverage: 1915-
- Contemporary Women's Issues (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new windowprovides access to current full text and backfile content covering topics including civil rights, health, education, professional development, and entrepreneurship. Coverage: 1992-
- Gale OneFile: Pop Culture Studies This link opens in a new windowBrings journal, reference, book, news, and web content about popular culture from Gale together in one search interface.
- ProQuest Social Science Database This link opens in a new windowContains hundreds of academic journals, providing extensive coverage across a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, criminology, economics, education, political science, psychology, social work and sociology. Coverage: 1987-
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowCitation database with access to MEDLINE covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. Other services include the Journal Browser, MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) Browser, Citation Matcher, and Clinical Queries. Coverage: 1946-
- SPORTDiscus This link opens in a new windowCitations and some abstracts from periodicals, books, conference proceedings, dissertations and theses, research papers, etc. covering the areas of sports, physical fitness, sport science and recreation. Access is limited to four simultaneous users. Coverage: 1830-
Primary Source Databases (Archival materials)
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new windowProvides access to materials exploring important aspects of LGBTQ life. Includes periodicals, newsletters, manuscripts, government records, organizational papers, correspondence, an international selection of posters, and other primary source materials. Includes access to five modules: LGBTQ History Since 1940, part 1; LGBTQ History Since 1940, part 2; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture; and L'Enfer de la Bibliotheque Nationale de France Digital Archive. Coverage: 1600-Current
- Archives Unbound This link opens in a new windowTopically-focused digital collections of primary, unpublished historical documents drawn from institutional and governmental sources and private collections. Broad topic clusters include: African American studies; American Indian studies; Asian studies; British history; Holocaust studies; LGBT studies; Latin American and Caribbean studies; Middle East studies; political science; religious studies; women's studies; and more.
- Center for the History of Medicine (Harvard)Countway Library houses the Center for the History of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital Archives, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Archives, and Warren Anatomical Museum Collection.
- Defining Gender This link opens in a new windowExplore contemporary perceptions of gender through British source material from the 1500s to 2000s, including correspondence, advice literature, periodicals, ephemera and government documents.
- Ebony Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowProvides access to the entire Ebony Magazine archive from 1945-2014. Browse issues or search across the entire archive, including images and advertisements. Coverage: 1945-2014
- JET Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowProvides access to the entire JET Magazine archive from 1951-2014. Browse issues or search across the entire archive, including images and advertisements. Coverage: 1951-2014
- Leisure, Travel and Mass Culture This link opens in a new windowThis collection charts the development of one of the world’s largest and most culturally significant industries. Material is sourced from international archives, including the archives of Thomas Cook, the world’s best known travel agency and a pioneer of tourism for the masses. Coverage: 1850-1980
- LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowProvides access to many of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests, including The Advocate and Gay Times. Coverage: 1954-2015
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowPrimary source collections of the “long” nineteenth century. Collections are sourced through partnerships with major world libraries and specialist libraries. Content includes monographs, newspapers, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, and more. Coverage: 1769-1906
- Popular Culture in Britain and America This link opens in a new windowFrom the collections of original archival material from key libraries in Britain and America, discover the 1950's to the 1970's through a wealth of printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video clips. Coverage: 1950-1975
- Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900 This link opens in a new windowUncover the history of ‘popular’ remedies and treatments in nineteenth century America, through primary source materials from the extensive collections at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Coverage: 1800-1900
- Queer Pasts This link opens in a new windowProvides access to digital exhibits on queer history. Each exhibit includes a collection of primary source documents and an accompanying essay written by the exhibit curator.
- Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new windowContains streaming video of NBC nightly news broadcasts (August 1968 to present) and CNN broadcasts (1995 to present); video requires RealPlayer. Also contains abstracts of evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, and CBS from August 1968 to present; daily news programs from CNN (1995 to present), FOX News (2004 to present), and ABC Nightline (12 September 1988 to present); and a selection of special programs, including coverage of political events, events related to September 11, 2001, and more. Content is added approximately 72 hours after it was broadcast. Loan requests accepted for video of broadcasts that are not available online. Coverage: August 1968 to present
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new windowThe Victorian Popular Culture portal is a resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It contains a wide range of source material relating to popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the period from 1779 to 1930, and shows how interconnected these worlds were. Coverage: 1779-1930
- Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919 to 2019 This link opens in a new windowThis database examines efforts to foster gender equity through expanded economic and social participation of women on a global scale. Covering a century, the database highlights and evaluates activism through individual efforts, organizational initiatives, and socio-cultural projects led by or for women in the Global South. Coverage: 1919-2019
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600 to 2000 This link opens in a new windowIncludes primary documents, books, images, scholarly essays, book reviews, Web site reviews, and teaching tools, all documenting the multiplicity of women’s activism in public life. Also includes a searchable online edition of the highly respected research tool "Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary" (5 volumes, 1971–2004), fully integrated into the broader Women & Social Movements database.
Instruction & Outreach Librarian
ZSR Special Collections & Archives
Contact: archives@wfu.edu
Special Collections & Archives research hours are Monday-Friday 10:00am-4:00pm*. To schedule a time please fill out this form or call 336-758-6175.
Current News Sources
- America's News This link opens in a new window Features national, regional and local news from across the United States from the 1980s to the present. Includes the Winston-Salem Journal. A great resource for getting news from regional and local news sources. Coverage: 1980s-
- ProQuest Current News This link opens in a new window Current US and international news. This simultaneously searches ProQuest databases US Newsstream, International Newsstream, Global Breaking Newswires, Canadian Newsstream, Ethnic Newswatch, and Recent Newspapers.
- Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window Full text for many major U.S. and international newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, the London Times, and others. Also includes some television and radio news transcripts. Coverage: 1985-
- Ebsco Current News This link opens in a new window Cross searches current national and international news sources, wire services, and regional news sources.
Historic News (Archives)
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Provides full-text searchable access to both U.S. and selected international historical newspapers, including: New York Times (1851-three years ago), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Wall Street Journal (1889-2011), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2009), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), Washington Post (1877-2006), New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), Times of India (1838-2010), Korea Times (1956-2016), Irish Times and Weekly Irish Times (1859-2021), the Chinese Historical Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), the South China Morning Post (1903-2001), and Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals (1845-2015). More recent issues may be available through other databases. Includes advertisements, illustrations, etc. as they were laid out on the original page. Coverage: Varies by publication.
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Search the full text of historical newspapers. WFU access includes the Early American Newspapers Series 1 (1690-1876), African American Newspapers Series 1 (1827-1998), African American Newspapers Series 2 (1835-1956), and Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876). Coverage: 1690-1876, 1827-1998
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window Includes hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers. For each issue, the newspaper is captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration. Coverage: 1801-1899
- British Library Newspapers (1800-1900) This link opens in a new window Provides searchable, full page image digital access to newspapers from throughout the British isles, including Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. Includes access to Parts I & II (1800-1900). Coverage: 1800-1900
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new window Provides searchable, full page image digital access to British journals published between the late 1600s and early 1900s. Topics covered include, literature, art, music, architecture, drama, history, science, and more. Includes access to collections I & II. Coverage: 1680s-1930s