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What Are Databases?

Articles usually provide very targeted information, focusing on one small segment of a topic. Articles also tend to be more recent. Newspaper and magazine articles can be updated within days or weeks of an event, while academic journal articles may take a few months or longer.

Library databases are the best place to locate articles. These databases contain thousands of sources for you to search for free full-text. Databases have different types of sources, mostly journal or magazine articles, but some databases provide multimedia such as videos or images.

It's important to have a good mix of sources for your speech, and not just rely on websites. Books and articles will provide more in-depth information about your topic, and will be more credible. By using credible sources, your argument as a speaker will be more powerful and persuasive.

Databases

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)

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A full text database covering many different disciplines and subject areas. A great place to start research on any topic. Coverage is mostly magazines and journals, with limited newspaper articles.

CQ Researcher

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Explores a single "hot" issue each week with an in-depth report. Issues range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education, and science. Includes charts, graphs and sidebar articles. Very in-depth information and a great resource for learning about controversial subjects.

NewsBank

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A collection of newspapers from around the United States. Great for finding the latest news about certain issues, as well as looking back to see news articles from the last two decades. Includes the Gainesville Sun. See also NewsBank's Special Reports for a collection of newspaper articles on topics of current interest.

Opposing Viewpoints (Gale in Context)

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Provides searchable topics giving pro and con articles, topic overviews, statistics, court cases, links to government agencies and special interest groups, newspaper, magazine, and journal articles and more about social issues.

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center

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A comprehensive resource for career exploration and educational planning. Includes profession profiles, school finder, career assessment, career profile videos, as well as sample résumés and cover letters.

Peterson's Test & Career Prep

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Explore careers, get help writing a resume or cover letter, search for jobs, and get tips from experts. This database requires you to create an account with them in order to interact with content. You must first complete a career assessment to begin exploring and researching careers.

Biography (Gale in Context)

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Research information about specific people. Contains biographical information from reference books, newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Films on Demand: Speech & Communication Videos

Access Films on Demand: Speech & Communication  |  Video Tutorial  |  How to Cite

A collection of communication videos from Films on Demand. Includes principles of communication, famous speeches, and more.

The New York Times Historical (ProQuest)

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Provides full-text and full-image articles for The New York Times, covering the period from 1851-2014.

Many of the databases will have a way for you to limit to peer-reviewed articles. These are articles that are more scholarly and academic, and have undergone a rigorous review process before being published.

Look for a checkbox on the search screen that says scholarly, peer-reviewed, or academic.

Browsable Titles

Vital Speeches of the Day logo

Vital Speeches of the Day is a periodical title that compiles contemporary speeches. This title is available through Academic Search Complete, with archives back to 1934.

Access Vital Speeches of the Day

The following general magazine titles are available through our library databases and will provide recent and introductory articles on current events and other timely topics.

Florida Newspapers

U.S. Newspapers

Google Scholar

Google Scholar allows you to search for scholarly articles that have been indexed by Google. By default, most articles in Google Scholar do not have the full text available. To increase the full-text results, set up Google Scholar to connect to Santa Fe College's database and journal holdings.

  1. Click the three-line icon in the upper left (also called the 'hamburger' menu).
    hamburger icon in Google Scholar
  2. Click the Settings link; this may be under the More menu.
    Settings
  3. Click Library links in the menu.
    Library links
  4. Search for Santa Fe College - Find it @ Santa Fe, add a checkmark, and save it.

Only articles with a link in the right column will have their full text available. Find it @ Santa Fe means the full text is in a library database.

You may be prompted to log in with your Office 365 account when clicking the Find it @ Santa Fe link.

If you need access to an article that does not have the full text available, you may request a copy through interlibrary loan.

Research is not done in a vacuum. Research articles will build upon previous work, which allows you to follow a timeline of research.

If you find an article that you like, look at that article's references/citations. You may find more articles that are similar in their research goals and that could be useful. You can then use Google Scholar to locate the full text. For instance, here is a citation of an article about Henrietta Lacks.

Robert D. Truog, Aaron Kesselheim, Steven Joffe, "Paying Patients for Their Tissue: The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks," Science 337, 2012: 37-38.

Input the article title in the Google Scholar search box (be sure that you have already set up your Library Links to connect to Santa Fe College). You may need to add in more information, such as author names, if there are too many irrelevant search results.

Google Scholar search for: paying patients for their tissue: the legacy of henrietta lacks

Look to the right for the full text links. If there is no full text available, you may place an Interlibrary Loan request.

You may also move forward within the research. In Google Scholar, it will tell you how many articles have cited the article you are looking at. In this case, the article "Paying Patients for Their Tissue" has been cited 62 times.

"Cited by" link highlighted

Click that Cited by link to see the articles that have cited this article, along with full text links as needed.

Google Scholar from Lawrence W. Tyree Library on Vimeo.

Hello! This video tutorial will demonstrate how to use Google Scholar and how to link database holdings.

Google Scholar is a subset of Google that allows you to search for scholarly information, including articles, scholarly books, and other types of publications. Not everything indexed in Google Scholar has the full text available. However, you can increase your full-text results by adding Santa Fe College as your library. To access Google Scholar, go to scholar.google.com.

At the top left of the page, click the icon with three horizontal lines, and then choose Settings.

On the next screen, click Library links.

On the Library links page, type Santa Fe College in the search box, and press the Enter key. In the resulting list, select Santa Fe College – Find it @ Santa Fe, and then click Save.

Saving your settings takes you back to the Google Scholar search screen. Enter your search in the box provided.

The results list displays matching articles and more. If you see a Find it @ Santa Fe link to the right of an article, the Tyree Library has access to that article. Click the Find it @ Santa Fe link.

Once you click the link, you may be prompted to sign using your Office 365 account. You might not see this screen if you are logged in elsewhere to Canvas or your Office 365 email.

You may be taken directly to the full text of the article or to an intermediary page. On this page, look at the View Online section to see the full text links.

Article options will vary, depending on the database it is part of. All articles should provide the full text.

Articles with other links in the far-right column are freely available online. As with any link to a file found online, be cautious. If you do not recognize the source of the link, you probably should not click it. Instead, contact a librarian for assistance.

If an article does not have a link in the right column, the full text is not currently available. To request a full-text copy of the article, click the double arrows icon.

Next, click the Request it link.

If you are not already signed in, click the Sign in link.

Choose Office 365 and log in with your Office 365 account.

Now you will see the option for an interlibrary loan request. This is the process of requesting that the Library obtain an item for you, which is free.

Fill out your information in the top part of the form. The bottom half should already be filled in with the article information, but you should double check before you submit. Articles are usually available within a week.

This concludes the video tutorial on using Google Scholar. If you have any questions, please contact a librarian:

352-395-5409
reference@sfcollege.edu
Building Y, NW Campus
sfcollege.edu/library
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