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, HealthSource/Nursing edition, Medline, and PUBMED

These individual databases are listed below in alphabetical order.

(LibGuides on our About the Library page provide detailed resource lists by subject (for example: welding, nursing, psychology, English Criticism and copyright/plagiarism info)

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

Also, we are always adding new resources in the boxes on each side of this page to provide further academic support to you, resources for your children, to connect you with free books and databases, and to connect you to mental health support 

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

We read these messages during open hours (see About the Library )

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.

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

if you get the message Your connection is not private, click on ADVANCE (below and left of the message) and then click PROCEED to get into the database (like Academic Search Complete).

Ignore any other directions about your user name and password that you see

1. Choose a type of database groups to search such as Academic, Business, Education depending on the subject you are researching.

2. Choose which individual 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 then click on the yellow Continue button at the top of the page. 

3. Notice that you have search options listed below the search line - Basic Search or Advanced Search. Enter your search terms (name of a person, relevant terms found in your textbook,  ect) in the search line, EX: literary criticism Rose for Emily or nursing ethics or contemporary art then click the green SEARCH button.

4. 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, and Full Text (you will see the whole journal article or whole ebook rather than a summary) and watch your results become more pinpointed (fewer). You want top reduce the number of hits because you will have to review each one to select your sources for citation in your paper.

5. You can further limit hits by publication date or by language. You can search and get results in several languages including Spanish!! We suggest that you try to reduce results (hits) to 10 or less to reduce the amount of time you have to spend reading each article or chapter of a book. 

6. You can still further limit your hits by specifying a search field, EX: select title so get results for your search terms only when they appear in the title of the article or e-book or select subject for your search terms only when they are the subject of the resulting list of resources.    If you do not select a field it will search all fields including title, author, subject and other listed choices.

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, EX: Protests AND 2020 or nursing ethics AND hospitals.  The resulting list will include resources that must include BOTH search terms (or multiple search terms). This is a way to streamline your search so it saves you time.

If you have any questions, please call the Library at 361-354-2737 Monday - Thursday from 7 am - 6 pm and we will guide you through your search over the phone. We are here to help you. Good luck with your research!