ENG 102

Search Tips

Search for the keywords you found in your text. See if there are any subjects in the search that correlate with your keywords.
Use quotes when searching phrases.
Do not search full sentences - leave out articles (the, and, for, in... etc). Just search for the major keywords.
Build on your searches - piece by piece
If your keyword is too broad, think about subtopics instead. Example: Instead of searching for "essential programs", think about what programs would be included in that category: health, vocational, etc. Search for those topics instead.
Alternatively, if your keyword is too narrow, think about broader terms. Instead of Alzheimer's, you could try dementia, since Alzheimer's is a type of dementia.
Ask your friendly librarian for help! We are happy to assist you in your research. :)

Visual Thesaurus
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Interactive dictionary & thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words.
Oxford English Dictionary
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The Oxford English Dictionary online - find the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over 600,000 words.
Credo Reference
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Over 550 multidisciplinary, scholarly reference titles. A great place to get an overview on a topic in order to more effectively research it. Includes images, video, and integration with other databases such as JSTOR, OmniFile Select, etc.
Gale's Topic Finder
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Find new topics or keywords and discover new connections found in the top results.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias
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Oxford Research Encyclopedias offer long-form overview articles written and edited by leading scholars and researchers, addressing both foundational and cutting-edge topics across the major disciplines. Access to "pre paywall" content.
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
Indexes over 25,000 records, covering a wide array of topics. The database contains various images, offers brief biographies as well as information in a variety of subject areas.

AllSides
Unlike regular news services, AllSides exposes bias and provides multiple angles on the same story so you can quickly get the full picture, not just one slant.

Go to MEDIA BIAS and select "Media Bias Ratings".
Then, scroll down and choose "Center" under "News Source Bias" (to find only sources that try to report facts with no lean or bias).
Click on the title of the news source to learn more about the news source and the reason for the rating.
Find a news source you like? You can search for it in our Journal Finder (linked in the header of Western OneSearch).

Kanopy Streaming Video
The Kanopy collection includes a number of leading producers, such as the Criterion Collection, PBS, Kino Lorber, New Day Films, The Great Courses, California Newsreel and hundreds more.