OneSearch covers all subject areas and includes a vast amount of resources in many formats. Use its search box to look for article citations, books, articles, and other resources. OneSearch combines the information from the library catalog, the digital repository, and many databases into a single database so your search is faster, and more thorough.
OneSearch does not:
If you need to conduct a comprehensive search, for example for a literature review, you may want to search individual databases as well as OneSearch.
What are library databases?
Simply, they are the collections of electronic resources available through the library. These resources are generally subscription-based, meaning access to them is paid for by the library and usually restricted to students and faculty. The library's main search tool, OneSearch, is like a mega database because it contains over 90% of our research databases, including the print materials catalog, so that you can search a large pool and find relevant results from many different sources. Some useful databases specific to psychology include PsycINFO, JSTOR, PubMed, and Taylor & Francis among others.
What can I find in a library database?
All sorts of things, from images and video or sound recordings, to ebooks, research articles from journals, reports, as well as news and popular magazine articles. Some databases are indexes - primarily citations and abstracts with no full text articles. These are still useful since we have Full Text Finder which will take you to an article if we have full text access in a different database.
What is Google Scholar?
It's a valuable tool for doing research on the internet. Google Scholar is not a database but rather a specialized search engine that looks for scholarly materials that may be available online. Access to the full text of anything found with Google Scholar is not guaranteed but there are options. Some materials are open source or otherwise freely available online (yay!). You can also link Google Scholar to the UNF Library so that you can get access to items the library has in databases. And if no free, full-text access is available online, you still have the information you need to check against the library databases, the print journal holdings in the library. or to request the item through interlibrary loan (get articles in 2 days usually).
Which one should I use?
There's not a right or wrong answer here - unless your professor has prescribed one. Since you can use either library databases or Google Scholar, or both in conjunction to easily locate suitable scholarly articles, your search terms/strategy, and evaluating what you find become more important in your research process. Understanding what is possible with each tool and your own preference may guide you to the right tool for any given situation.
Still have questions or need advice on how to or where to search?
Consider booking an appointment to meet with a librarian. Research consultations are a great way to orient yourself or to get assistance with working through a difficult research problem. Librarians are available to meet in person or online upon request.
UNF subscribes to a number of databases that house newspapers. Here is a selected list of databases with historical news coverage, followed by a link to discover all the databases with newspaper content at UNF.
Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, these newspapers reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the time.
Contains material found in historic periodicals and books covering American history from the 1700s to 1900. Eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through newspaper articles, advertisements, and genealogical records.
Early American Newspapers offers several hundred thousand fully searchable issues from more than 250 significant 17th, 18th and 19th century newspapers from all 50 current states.
Unlimited article access to NYTimes.com and access to the complete Times archive from 1851. Users must create an account.
FAQ: How can I sign up for New York Times Access?
Already created an account? Go directly to the New York Times to log in.
The TimesMachine, which includes the archives of the New York Times and The New York Daily Times (1851-1857), is linked under More at the bottom of each page.
Please note: Using Google Chrome may cause errors on The New York Times website. We highly recommend using Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or Safari browsers.
