Finding Tools:

These include library catalogs, article indexes, e-reference collections, research guides, and librarians.

Access them from the Library's home page. (Yes, even the librarians! Send us email if you can't catch us in person.)

For help on using these tools, check out our Research Guides and Video Tutorials, or ask a librarian.

Contact Reference for passwords for off-campus access.

Summit
(a combined catalog for colleges & universities in our region)

WorldCat
(an international catalog)

You can also use Google Book Search to identify books; clicking on their link to "Find this item in a library" will take you to WorldCat and show the nearest library with the book - including CCC.

EBSCO's Academic Search Premier is usually the best starting point for magazines & journal articles for your college-level research. Other useful EBSCO indexes include:

• CINAHL (nursing journals)
• MEDLINE (medical journals)
• Business Source Premier
• Book Index with Reviews
• Agricola (agriculture)
• Primary Search, Middle Search, and MAS Ultra - for primary, middle, and high school reading levels, respectively

There are also several "collections" - these are subsets of Academic Search Premier, including:

• Religion & Philosophy
• Psychology & Behavioral Sciences
• Professional Development (for educators)
• Military & Government
• Legal
• Vocational & Career

We also have several article indexes from First Search; their broadest is ArticlesFirst. These do not provide full-text of articles, but do show whether we own the publication, and, if not, the nearest other libraries that do.

Electronic Reference Collections:

such as:

Not sure where to begin with your research?

Are the electronic tools giving you too much, too little, or completely irrelevant information?

Try asking one of the friendly carbon-based units at the Reference Desk for guidance!