Guide: Off-Campus Access

THIS IS WHERE TO DO YOUR RESEARCH FROM HOME

Use Academic Search Complete, ERIC, and Gale Databases 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 below. We recommend Academic Search Complete but there are many databases to choose from. It is the first on the list directly below the letter A. That is where you enter the username and password above in red

Next you will see topics - academic, business, education, etc to choose from. Choose depending on the subject you are researching.

Then you will make a choice of which databases to search. You can select all of the listed databases but we suggest limiting your search to Academic Search Complete and Ebooks (the first two choices). To do this click the boxes next to these and click on the yellow Continue button at the top of the page. 

Next, notice that you have search options listed below the search line - Basic Search or Advanced Search. Enter your search terms in the search line, for example: literary criticism Rose for Emily or you can type nursing ethics or you can type contemporary art then click the green Search button.

To reduce your search results (hits) scroll down the left hand side of the screen (below Search Options) where you will see Limit Your Results. Select Peer Reviewed (which means an expert in the field wrote the article or book)  and watch results recalculate, then check Full Text (you will see the whole journal article or whole ebook rather than a summary) it will recalculate your results (usually fewer). You can further limit by publication date or by language. We suggest that you try to reduce results (hits) to 10 or less. You can further limit by a specified field, for example: title so get results for your search terms appearing in the title of the article or ebooks or the field- subject - your search terms are the subject of the result resources. If you do not select a field it will search all fields.

If you select Advanced Search you can also limit your results by using AND at the beginning of the search line when multiple search words are used so all results include ALL of your search terms, for example: Protests AND 2020 or nursing ethics AND hospitals.  

If you 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. Good luck with your research!