Guide: Off-Campus Access

THIS IS WHERE TO DO YOUR RESEARCH FROM HOME

Use Academic Search Complete, ERIC, and JSTOR for English criticism 

while Allied Health students use CINAHL and PUBMED

These individual databases are listed below in alphabetical order A-Z

(LibGuides on our About the Library page provide detailed resource lists by subject and Copyright/plagiarism info)

Type username:cbc  password: Guest (capital G) to access online resources 

When selecting sources remember to consider CRAPP (Currency, Reliability, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose of the journal or article)

Also, we are adding new resources in the boxes on each side of this page almost daily to provide academic support as well as to provide resources for children who may be home with you, to connect you with free books and databases that you can use from home, to connect you to mental health support and all things library. 

We miss seeing you and look forward to seeing you again when more classes are held in-person!

  If you have a question - email  Ray or Sarah here: library@coastalbend.edu

We get these messages between 8 am and 5 pm Monday-Friday

HOW TO DO RESEARCH : A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

Select a database to search from the alphabetical list running down the middle of this page. We recommend Academic Search Complete but there are many databases to choose from. It is the first on the list but appears in the middle - above Agricola. That is where you enter the username and password above in red

Next you will see topics - academic, business, education, etc

For example: if you select Academic- then you have a choice to select all of the listed databases but I suggest Academic Search Complete and Ebooks (the first two choices). To make a selection, click the boxes next to them and then click on the yellow Continue button at the top. 

Next, type in your search terms, for example: Black Lives Matter (all three words together) in the first search box or nursing ethics (both words) etc . Click on Advanced Search using AND so you can add options which will limit your search results. By doing this, only journal articles and books with ALL of your search terms will appear in your result list. This means you can reduce the results from thousands of hits (and having to review those thousands of articles or ebooks) to a reasonable amount (under twenty).  I try to get my results down to 5-10 hits which will take only a few hours to review. 

If you look a few inches down and on the left hand side of the screen (below Search Options) you will see Limit your results. When you select Full Text (you will see the whole journal article or whole ebook) it will recalculate your results (usually fewer) then further limit by clicking on Peer Reviewed (which means an expert in the field wrote the article or book) or even by language or year of publication. 

If you are still confused or have any questions, please call the Library at 361-354-2737 Monday-Friday from 8 am - 5 pm and we will guide you through your search over the phone. We are here to help you. Happy hunting as you research!