Finding Articles - COMM 101 - Public Speaking: Hines - LibGuides at West Los Angeles College

Using Databases

Remote access

If you are accessing any of our databases from off-campus, you will need to login with your SIS username and password, contact a Librarian if you are having trouble signing in.

Library databases for news and current events

Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new window
Research diverse perspectives, topics and trends that align with areas of study such as Business, Health, Criminal Justice, Science, Humanities, Political Science and more. Features reliable, credible information from a wide variety of international, national and local news sources.
College This link opens in a new window
Access news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more.
CountryWatch (Premium) This link opens in a new window
Provides current news and information on each of the recognized countries of the world.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Browse this extensive list of research reports arranged by topics such as health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy in America.

Library databases for all topics

Biography This link opens in a new window
This Gale database includes more than 500,000 individuals from throughout history and from around the world.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Provides access to thousands of articles from reference sources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries. It is a great place to find overviews and background information on your research topic. The articles come from highly respectable reference sources
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
The largest single periodical resource available, bringing together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities

You can also try searching any of the databases from our A-Z Databases List.

Boolean Operators

Why use Boolean operators?

Use them to focus a search, especially when your topic contains multiple terms. Boolean operators will help you find exactly what you are looking for, and they also work when you are searching the open web.

What are the three basic Boolean operators?

Answer: AND, OR, and NOT. Below are some example of how they are used. NOTE: They must be capitalized as shown in the examples.

Using AND:

Example: cloning AND humans AND ethics
The database will retrieve all of your search terms.

Using OR:

Example: cloning OR genetics OR reproduction
This search is helpful when connecting two or more similar concepts (synonyms) and will broaden your results by retrieveing any of your search terms.

Using NOT:

Example: cloning NOT sheep
This will narrow your results by removing certain search terms.