Library FAQs

Hello, thanks for your question.  This FAQ listed below is a good place for overall information on how to search:    It shows you where Ebsco Discovery Service is (broad database of many topics) as well as database that cover certain topics such as science, health, etc.  
 

• Search EDS for "gun safety" as a keyword.  If you're looking for a phrase such as gun safety, put quotation marks around it. You'll see a research starter at the top on gun laws which is an overall summary of the topic and is great for background information and to use as a type of encyclopedia source.   At the time I searched there were 159K items with these phrase.  
   
• Browse the list and look at the bolded words in the subject heading.  Click on the article and click the subject link.   It looks like the subject used in this database may be "firearms safety" and if you click into an article, you can click on the subject link to only find those items.  There are only 1,500 items. This is a topic that could have several phrases used.  
   
•  Let's try a search on "gun control".  That phrase has over 700K entries and as a subject heading it has over 40K entries that  narrow it down to sources that are primarily about the topic rather than just mention it in passing.  
   
• Limit the search to "academic journals" in the left hand column.  ,This is another term for scholarly journals and it will tell you the number of items that match that limitation.  Click on it and your search will only include those types of articles.  If you look in the column of results, to the left of each title you will see the academic journal icon.  
   
• Click on "advanced search" at the top and combine with another word or words to narrow down your results. You can include a word such as mental or youth or school in the second line and then search.  Your narrowing down by academic journal disappears so you see all types of sources, but you can limit it again. 
   
• Remove the limits and you can search by book to find ebooks or printed books to borrow.  

See the link below to learn how to save your sources with their citations. 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write back or click the "get connected" button on our library's page.  The link is below.