CU Library Find Articles Quick Guide

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Find Articles Quickguide

Find Articles allows you to search multiple databases, simultaneously, from a select group of databases in different subject areas. Please note: the databases available in Find Articles represent only a fraction of the many online resources available at Cornell. To find additional article indexes, newspaper databases and other online resources, use the Library Gateway’s Find Databases feature or the CU Library Catalog. See the table below for a comparison between Find Articles and Find Databases.

For more information about finding articles on a topic, see Finding Specific Types of Materials: Articles or Ask a Librarian.

	Find Articles	Find Databases
What it is	Allows simultaneous searching of some of the databases available in Find Databases	Allows you to find relevant databases by keyword or subject and to access and connect to a database quickly by name
What it contains	More than 100 selected online indexes and reference sources	Hundreds of online indexes and reference sources
When to use it	To search more than one database at a time; to see which search terms or databases give more results; to do a very simple search for a few quick articles on a general topic	To do comprehensive research and advanced searching; to search databases and other resources not included in Find Articles , and to use additional features available in some databases such as selecting specific fields to include for exporting references to citation management software, and creating saved searches and email notifications
What a search returns	Citations (article publication information) and sometimes full text articles	Online indexes and databases from which to begin unlimited and advanced searching for citations, articles and/or dissertation information

Using Find Articles:

Type in your keyword(s)
Enter a single term or phrase in the search box in the upper left of the screen. For precision searching, select “Advanced Search” and use the pull-down windows to specify where in the database record you would like each term to be searched (author, keyword, or title, for example). If you entered terms in more than one box, combine those terms by selecting And, Or, or Not. Using And will limit your results to items containing all search terms; using Or will broaden your results by including results with any of your terms.

An important note about searching in Find Articles:

If you type in more than one keyword in a single search box (e.g., west nile virus), the databases you have selected may search for these terms differently. Some will automatically search the terms as a phrase (“west nile virus”); some will process the search with an AND between each word (west AND nile AND virus); some will process the search with an OR between each (west OR nile OR virus). For more precise results, search the individual databases directly. For more information and assistance, Ask a Librarian.

Select Database(s):
Click the checkbox next to a subject category to search a selection of databases in that subject area, or scroll down to select individual databases. You may choose as many databases in as many categories as you like, but searching more databases may require more time to get results.
View Results:
By default, results will be grouped by database. Click on an individual database name in the “Results by Resource” box to jump to the results from a particular database, or scroll through the list. Note that only a limited selection of the results from each database are displayed on the initial results page; click the Next Set… button at the end of each list to view more. You may also view results sorted by relevancy, title, author, or date by using the pull-down menu at the top of the results list.
View Records:

Click View to view the full record for the article (in the source database). Click Get it! Cornell to find full text online (if available), search the Cornell Library catalog, or request interlibrary loan or document delivery services.
Print, E-mail, or Save Results: Select some or all of your search results by checking the appropriate box(es). Use the links at the top of the results page to print, e-mail, save, or export your results.

System Messages or Errors:

No results or summary information, or error messages for a particular database – This may mean that Find Articles is temporarily unable to access one or more databases. In many cases, you will be able to search the database directly (even if you cannot connect through Find Articles) by using Find Databases and entering the name of the database in the search box. If you experience problems with databases using either system, please fill out a Problem Connecting form (linked from the bottom of all library webpages) to notify library staff.

Cannot access Find Articles – Please fill out a Problem Connecting form (linked from the bottom of all library webpages) to notify library staff.

Not Finding What You Need?

Contact library reference staff for assistance with Find Articles. See the Ask A Librarian link on the Library Gateway.