CSUN WordmarkOviatt Library

Comp 108

Narrow or Broaden Your Search (Boolean Searching)

Use AND between terms to narrow your search

example: history and linux and open souce

Use OR and/or truncate (*, ?) words to broaden your search

example: OS or operating system
example: comput* (will find computer, computers, computing, etc.)
example: wom?n (will find woman or women)

Note: check online help for the correct truncation symbol

Finding Articles

You can use these databases or any others listed on the database pages; this list is only a suggestion of places to start your research. If the full-text is not available for the article you want to see, click the Find Text button or the "Find Text" link to see if the full-text is available in another database.

MLA Style

Finding Books in the Library Catalog

Use the Catalog search box located in the center of the library's homepage to search for books. To search for books on your topic, use the default Keyword search option and enter your search terms in the For box.

Catalog search box on homepage

If you have a specific book or author in mind, before you enter your search terms in the For box, change the Search type from Keyword to:

  • Title - to look for a specific book.
  • Author - to look for books by a specific author.

 To look for ebooks only, select Ebooks in the Limits field.

Using Google Scholar

You can find items the Oviatt Library owns using Google Scholar's Find Text capabilities. To activate the capabilities for your browser:

  1. Select Settings in the upper right, then Library links from the left menu.
  2. In the search box, type "CSUN" and select Find Library.
  3. Check the box next to "CSU, Northridge (SFX Find It)"
  4. Then select Save.

Select the SFX Find It at CSUN link (to the right of the article) or the SFX: Additional Options link (located below the article description) for access to online full text, Oviatt Library holdings information, and Interlibrary Loan.

APA Style