Finding Articles 

ACC Library subscribes to dozens of article databases. Search them by subject to find articles from thousands of journals, magazines and newspapers. Click on the tabs above for more information.

Google Scholar is essentially a large listing of articles, with some duplication. A very small percentage of articles are full-text in Google Scholar itself. (Those would come from free journal Web sites.)

Here's the catch: Google Scholar will easily link you to full-text articles in the ACC Library's databases if you are using an ACC campus computer to search. (Google Scholar uses IP address based authentication to know which databases are available to the searcher.)

After you do a search with your ACC computer and review the citations, click the link "Full-Text @ ACC," and then "Article" on the next screen. This should link you into an ACC Library database with full-text access. The University of Alabama's Lister Library has created a narrated tutorial that is similiar to what you'd see using Google Scholar at ACC. See:
https://www.uab.edu/lister/research/nursing/tutorials/google_scholar_tutorial.htm

If you search for articles from off campus using Google Scholar, first go to the Scholar Preferences link and add "Adirondack Community College" (or,  SUNY Plattsburgh if you're a student there) under the Library Links option.

Then, when you click a full-text link, log on with your student username/password as usual to link to the library databases.

An advantage to Google Scholar is that it searches with a looser "keyword" method, not subject headings. So, if you have tried other databases with little success and have consulted with a librarian for search tips, Google Scholar could be useful for those "needle in a haystack" topics.

A warning: This Nov. 2009 article from Library Journal describes a weakness of Google Scholar: the parser software may incorrectly fill in the author information for an article. If you see an odd author name such as Password, Subscribe, etc., doublecheck the article's information in another database! A librarian can help you do this.

See the Google Scholar About pages for more details. At any point in your search, contact an ACC librarian for search pointers and to ask if an article is available full-text or through interlibrary-loan.

(search results open in a new window)

Database searching tips:

• To find variant endings to your search terms, consider truncating, or adding a wildcard ending, with an asterisk (*): searching for bird* finds citations with bird, birds, birding, etc.
• Use at least two search terms linked by "and" to search for both terms.
• Check the databases’ Help screens for more time-saving search tips, and
• View the ACC Library's Tutorials page on the tab above.

Finding Articles Full-text: If an article is not available in full-text in the database you're searching, the library's "Serials Solutions 360 Link" software will try to find it for you. Just select "Find full-text" under the list of results to search across EBSCO, Wilson, Proquest, and Gale databases. Next, click the "Article" link if available. Otherwise, click "Journal" link if available, or ask for assistance at the Reference Desk. 360 Link may not deliver full-text if: 1) none of our databases index the journal, or 2) the journal was published very recently, e.g., within the past month.

Print Journals: The ACC Library subscribes to more than 300 magazines, scholarly journals and newspapers. You may browse through them on the main floor of the library. Library users may photocopy articles in paper format, and print microform articles on the reader/printers, at 10 cents a copy. Thousands of additional periodicals are available full-text through article databases.

The ACC Library page Periodical List links to an alphabetical list of ACC Library's subscriptions. Just search it by title see if the ACC Library subscribes to the journal,  magazine or newspaper. It also lists what dates of each periodical the ACC Library owns, and in what format: paper, microfilm or microfiche.

Print this handout if you'd like. It describes types of journals, article databases, and more.