Library: FSSE 1000: Discover library resources

Search tools

Find library resources are by searching O.W.L., GALILEO, and/or Google Scholar. What's the difference?

O.W.L. and GALILEO both provide access to most of the libraries resources, including articles, e-books, streaming video and more. But,

if you want a print book, or a DVD, or other physical object, you will find it only in O.W.L.
if you want to search a single database, search GALILEO.
if you are just getting started and would like background information on your topic, look for research starters in GALILEO.

Note that you can only find ATC library's articles in Google Scholar. So don't search there if you are looking for a streaming video.

For more information about O.W.L. and GALILEO, there are videos about them on our library tutorials page.

Search tips: Publication cycle

When you are thinking about your search strategy you need to think about what kind of information you need. What is your topic? Is it something current, or is it a historical event? How current does your information need to be? The graphic below shows different types of resources, and how long it takes for each to be published. If you are looking for information on something that happened yesterday, for example, then likely there will not yet be a book about it.

Image from the University of Binghamton library

Publication cycle graphic
Opens in a new window

For more information

For more information about library research, check out our Library DIY research guide.

Search tips: Identify keywords

Before you dive into your research, pull out your concepts and identify some keywords for searching. This will help you focus your research, and will also help when you are searching GALILEO.

Unlike GOOGLE and other search engines, you can't type in an entire question or statement in a library database. Instead, you want to type in keywords.

Let's say your research question is: Can women really "have it all?"?

The concepts are:

1. Women

2. Family

3. Work

and probably the emotional aspects of trying to do this all at once.

Some keywords might be:

1. Women OR mothers OR moms

2. family OR household OR husband OR children

3. work OR career OR business OR success

As you progress through your research project, keep adding new terms to your list as you find them. Subject headings and article abstracts are particularly good places to look.

Identifying keywords

Transcript for this video