Digging Deeper
The search engines here will perform a general search. If you already have an idea of the types of resources you are looking for, explore the Databases, Books, and Journals in the tabs above.
Library Material In Basement, Summer Session, View 1. Teacher College. (1920). Historical Photographs of Teachers College. Courtesy of Gottesman Libraries.
Discovery Tools
Federated Search Engines
Federated search engines like the ones below are discovery tools that allow you to search across multiple resources and formats. If you aren't sure what resource you need and want to get a general sense of what is out there, start here!
- WorldCatConnects thousands of libraries’ collections in one place, offering information about millions of books, magazines, movies, songs, maps, genealogical records, research theses. Includes many kinds of digital content like open-source e-books, articles, downloadable audiobooks, and photos. You can also find article citations with links to full text, authoritative research materials, one-of-a-kind documents and photos of local or historic significance, and digital versions of rare items that aren’t generally available to the public.
- OASISOpenly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 115 different sources and contains 440,380 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library.
- Mason OER MetafinderThis tool launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 22 different sources of open educational materials.
- Google ScholarGoogle's search engine that specifically searches scholarly literature and academic resources across an array of disciplines. Though not specifically focused on OA/OER materials, you can use one of the tools below in combination with Scholar to find needed items.
Using Educat+ to find Open Access Articles
The Gottesman Libraries catalog, EDUCAT+, the definitive record of library holdings at Teachers College. The video below will show you how to limit your search results.
The video above illustrates the following step-by-step instructions on how to filter for Open Access articles in Educat+
- Enter your search term in the search box
- Click the magnifying lens in the right of the search box to begin the search
- Once your results are populated look to the left-side menu "Refine your results"
- Under the filter facet "Availability" click on the "Open Access" button
- Click "Apply filters"
Browser Widgets/Extensions Etc.
These tools modify your browsers to help you locate OA and OER materials. Try them out!
- CORE DiscoveryOne-click access to free copies of research papers whenever you hit the paywall.
- Open Access ButtonThis button searches thousands of sources to get you instant legal access to articles you need. If it can't get the article it will request that the author make it available.
- UnpaywallLegally get full-text scholarly articles as you browse.
Search Tips
Constructing Searches
- Consider key terms: pick out terms in your topic that you think would pull up relevant resources. Also, consider synonyms or related terms you can try as well (for example the search term "attitudes" might have related terms of 'perceptions,' 'beliefs,' 'perspectives' etc.)
- Use punctuation: most search engines use a similar set of punctuation to help clarify your search terms. Here are some:
- Quotations: using quotation marks allows you to search for an exact phrase i.e. "Teachers College" instead of 'Teachers' and 'College'.
- Asterisk: adding an asterisk at the end of a word will capture related words with the same root or base, i.e. 'philosoph*' will capture philosophy, philosophical, philosopher etc.
- Question mark: a question mark in a search has a similar function to an asterisk, but for only one letter i.e. 'wom?n' will capture woman and women.
- AND, OR, & NOT: these connectors called Boolean operators give the searcher more control over the search results. when using AND both terms searched must be present in a record. For OR either term can be present, and for NOT the chosen term must not be present.
- Use Advanced Search and Filters: to narrow your results even further, utilize fields that let you adjust the date range, resource type, location etc. If there is an 'Advanced Search' option, use that to manipulate these fields. Also, most search engines will show a "filter" area in the left column of the page once you have already searched--use this to narrow your results list.
Lincoln School Of Teachers College. Summer Demonstration. Recreation Program. (1939). Historical Photographs of Teachers College. Courtesy of Gottesman Libraries.