How To Search
Research Library Complete
Research Library Complete contains millions of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles on a range of subjects from the 1980s to the present. You can print or email the full-texts of many articles at your computer!
Getting Started
Simply click on "Research Library Complete" on the Libraries’ database list.
Searching
> Special Note: Make sure to select the proper "Date Range"
in the drop-down menu in the center of the screen before starting your search!
> Connect words with AND to find articles
that contain both words.
Example: football and baseball finds articles that contain both football
and baseball.
> Connect words with OR to find articles that contain either word.
Example: football or baseball finds articles that contain either football
or baseball.
> Connect words with AND NOT to find articles that contain one word
but not another.
Example: sports and not football finds articles that contain sports but
not football.
> Put well-known phrases in quotation marks.
Example: "Baseball Hall of Fame" finds articles that contain
this exact phrase.
"physical therapy" and salary finds articles containing both the
phrase "physical therapy" and the keyword salary.
> Truncation: Use a ? to find various forms of a word:
Example: swim? finds swim, swimmer, swimmers, and swimming
>Wildcard: Use an * to substitute for a single letter in a word.
Example: wom*n finds both women and woman.
> Checkmark "Show results with full-text availability" to
limit your search to articles with online full-texts.
Checkmark "Show articles from peer-reviewed publications only"
to limit your search to scholarly and professional journals.
Improving Searches
Click the orange "Search Methods" and then select "Guided Search" to limit your search to titles, authors, abstracts, company, product name, or image caption. Guided Search is especially useful when you want to make your searches more specific.
If you are not finding the right kind of information, you may wish to select the Topic Finder or Browse Lists (green buttons at the top of the screen) to scroll through topics. Topic Finder and Browse can help you find the right keywords for your search or narrow your topic.
Viewing Texts
>Articles with a long piece of paper next
to them have online texts (articles with short pieces of paper do not have online
texts. Go to the next section for advice on finding a print copy).
>Click on the article’s title.
>Scroll down to view the text.
What if Research Library Complete does not have the full-text?
Look in Libraries’ Catalog to see if the Library has
the journal containing the article:
> Minimize Research Library Complete (or print out the citation)
> Click on the Libraries’ Catalog (http://library.ua.edu/)
and select "Basic Search".
> Type in the name of the journal or magazine (not the title of the
article).
> Highlight "Journal Title" from the "Find Results in"
menu.
> Click "Search". The journal will appear if the library owns it.
(If the Library does not own it, the red message "your search resulted in
no hits!" will appear.)
> Scroll down to determine if the Library Has the appropriate month
and year of the journal. (Please note: if multiple headings appear, click on each
heading to see if the library has the appropriate month and year.)
> Write down the Location and Call Number for the journal or
magazine.
> Retrieve the article from the appropriate campus library using the Location,
Call Number, and citation from Research Libraries Complete..
Printing and Emailing
> Printing: Click "Print Article" on the left side of the
screen. Click the little blue here. Finally, click the print icon on
the browser bar at the top of the screen to print.
> Emailing: Click "Email Article" on the left side of the
screen. Type in your email address and the subject. Finally, click "Send
Email" on the right side of the screen.
Help
>Ask a librarian at the Information Desk in
one of the campus libraries.
>Call the Libraries at (205) 348-6047