Using Keywords to search effectively.
Need help finding keywords for your searches? How do keywords work?
Databases useful for Women's History include the following databases. Other subject-specific databases that may be useful can be found here.
A comprehensive coverage of issues that influence women’s lives across the globe. Contemporary Women's Issues provides access to current full text and pertinent backfile content covering topics including civil rights, health, education, professional development, and entrepreneurship.
Provides access to a wide range of resources specifically focused on American history, covering key topics like the American Civil War, African American history, westward expansion, and more. Includes scholarly essays from prominent historians. Features content relevant to both novice and advanced researchers.
Covers the latest concepts, trends, opinions, theories, and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences.
JSTOR provides growing access to archival journals . The available collections include a range of content in the disciplines of language and literature, history, education, sociology, art & art history, philosophy and religion.
Browse by primary source, topic and by time period—from eight historical periods relevant specifically to African-American history. Slave narratives, maps, audio and video are some of the types of resources found here.
Searching a library database is different than searching Google. You don't want to type in "women being paid less than men for the same work."
Instead, break down those concepts... they are your keywords.
Then, use the Advanced Search option in the database to put each term in its own box (or link the terms with AND -- "women AND Workplace AND pay equity AND gender bias"). Either option streamlines your search and helps the database know what you need!
Remember, you probably will want to select the options for Full Text and Peer Review so you can find the best articles out there for your paper!
Have a concept, name, etc., that is more than one word? Use quotation marks to search them together, like "gender pay gap."
Are keywords not working? Try thesaurus.com for other suggestions!
