Undergraduate Research and Mentorship Program

All students, faculty, and staff at NSU have access to FREE subscriptions to the Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Sign up for an account to have access to current and archival coverage from some of the world's best news outlets. Please visit the following guide for details: Newspaper Digital Subscriptions for Students, Faculty, and Staff

In addition to the newspaper subscriptions above, the NSU research databases include access to historical newspapers, news aggregators, and business reporting platforms. Try out the following resources or visit the full A-Z database list for more: A-Z Databases

Reference databases are a great place to start your research. These databases include resources that are perfect for background information and broad coverage of topics, such as: encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, and manuals.

Try out some of the reference databases below to get started or visit the full database list here: A-Z Databases

NSU research databases include access to current and historical resources ranging from primary resources to scholarly books and peer-reviewed articles.

Try out some of the research databases below to get started or visit the full database list here: A-Z Databases

Major research platforms that cover multiple disciplines include EBSCOhost and ProQuest:

Primary resource databases include items such as original works and digitized historical materials:

The library offers a wide variety of audio / visual databases from instructional lab videos to popular movies and jazz music.

Try out some of the audio / visual databases below to get started or visit the full database list here: A-Z Databases

Running a basic search in Credo Reference is similar to searching in Wikipedia. You can use general keywords and phrases in your search and Credo Reference will return results that include some or all of your keywords.

Clicking the "Advanced Search" button below the search box opens up additional options to control what kinds of results your search returns.

Use the provided Advanced Search boxes to refine your search based on the prompts.

In addition, the Advanced Search box includes drop-down menus that will allow you to limit Subjects, Titles, Publication Dates, and Features by checking the appropriate box.

Credo Reference is equipped with a Research Quick Tips tool to assist with research, searching, and topic selection helping you make the most of the database. To access the Research Quick Tips area, click on the three-lined "hamburger" menu in the upper-left corner of the screen and choose "Research Quick Tips":

The Research Quick Tips menu has several helpful guides, such as: how to avoid bias in your searches, how to find relevant sources, how to select a topic, research questions to your conclusion, using pre-research to understand your topic, what to do when your topic is too broad, and why you need many sources.

Credo Reference supplies a related topics map with the search results that can be a great way to explore your topic and see connections that can further your research. Click the links in the map to jump to articles on that topic and generate a new visual topic map.

For example, a search for Octavia E. Butler returns a related concepts map that includes "Hugo Award". Click "Hugo Award" and a new series of search results will load:

Academic Search Complete is part of the EBSCOhost platform. By default, this platform will open on the Advanced Search screen. You can enter general keywords and phrases in the top search box or switch to Basic Search by clicking the "Basic search" link located to the right side of your screen, over the field dropdown menus. Either way, Academic Search Complete will return results across its full collection that include some or all of your keywords. 

Many of the EBSCOhost databases available at Norfolk State University search huge volumes of resources and using the Advanced Search to narrow your results is often advised. See the Advanced Search tab of this block for more information.

Basic Search Screen

The basic search allows you to filter for articles with full text available, articles that are peer reviewed, and to narrow down the timeframe you are searching to the past year, the past five years, or the past 10 years.

When you enter your search terms in the box, the database will give you suggestions for possible search terms. You can select one of the suggestions by clicking on it, or continue with your own keywords. 

The results quickly let you know if it is peer reviewed with a yellow seal and the words, "Peer reviewed | Academic Journal"

The "Advanced Search" option is the default and preferred method of using the EBSCOhost platform search. You can switch back to the Basic Search by clicking on the "Basic search" link located above the field dropdown menus.

Use the provided Advanced Search search boxes to build your search and refine it by assigning values to the "All fields" dropdown menu at the end of each search box.

Below the search boxes, there are four tabs that allow you to refine your searches via filters, search modes, publication name, and subjects.

Filters

The "Filters" tab allows you to limit your results to articles that have full text available, include references, are peer reviewed, or are the cover story to a magazine or journal. You can also select your publication dates and specify a particular publication. In addition, you can narrow your search by publication type, document type, language, and number of pages.

Search Options

These options allow you to select your search mode. Learn more about these types of searching at EBSCO's Applying Search Modes

Publications

On this tab you can search a particular publication. Click the box next to the title, then the "Add to search" button. You can add multiple journals at once.

Subjects

The last tab lets you search by subject. This is especially helpful if your search terms can mean different things to different fields. For example, a search for the programming language "Python" is different from a search for the animal "python". By narrowing down the subject, you can exclude references to the animal. Click the box next to the subject or subjects you want and click the "Add to search button".

EBSCOhost databases offer several specific filtering and time-saving features.

MyEBSCO Sign In:

If you want to save documents to your account, sign in to MyEBSCO first. This will ensure that your items are saved and will be accessible the next time that you access any EBSCOhost database.

To access your account click the "MyEBSCO" link located at the top right of any page and then the "Sign in to MyEBSCO" button to enter your personalized workspace where you can save your resources to Project Folders and even share folders with a group. 

If it's your first time signing in, click the "Continue personalized" button.

Because your EBSCOhost account works across the full platform, your folders are available any EBSCOhost database.

After signing in to MyEBSCO you have access to: projects, saved, recent activity, and alerts. You can learn more about these options on the My Database tab.

Dynamic filtering

In the search results page, the "All filters" button located below the search box will allow you to add, remove, or adjust any filters on your search.

Mix-and-Match Databases:

The EBSCOhost platform includes many databases and you can search across any or all of them simultaneously by selecting the databases that you want to search from the full database list. From the top of the search page, click the link after "Searching:" and a pop-up will the full list of EBSCOhost databases will appear.

Check or un-check the boxes for databases that you want to search and click the "Select" button. Now when you search, you will be searching all of your selected databases at once. 

Note that when you mix databases, you may lose some of the filtering options that you are used to seeing in an individual search on the results page. If necessary, rerun your search in single databases as needed.

My Dashboard offers several ways to save and share your research. Review the features listed below and use the links below to jump between sections:

• MyEBSCO Sign In
• Projects
• Saved
• Recent Activity
• Alerts

MyEBSCO Sign In

If you want to save documents to your account, sign in to MyEBSCO first. This will ensure that your items are saved and will be accessible the next time that you access any EBSCOhost database.

To access your account click the "MyEBSCO" link located at the top right of any page and then the "Sign in to MyEBSCO" button to enter your personalized workspace where you can save your resources to Project Folders and even share folders with a group. 

If it's your first time signing in, click the "Continue personalized" button.

Because your EBSCOhost account works across the full platform, your folders are available any EBSCOhost database.

After signing in to MyEBSCO you have access to: projects, saved, recent activity, and alerts.

Projects

To create a new project, click on the round + button to the right of your screen.

Give it a name, an optional due date and an optional description, and click the "Create" button.

Your new project will appear on the Projects screen. You can have multiple projects at the same time.

Saved

Articles

You can save articles without placing them in a project. Click on the bookmark icon located to the right of any article listing to add it to your saved list. You can save from the Listing results or the item page.

The article now appears in the Saved list, under the Records tab. You can remove the article by clicking the bookmark icon again.

Searches

You can also save searches for later reference. Perform your search then click on the three dots button located at the top right of the search results. Click "Save search".

A pop-up window will appear. Enter any additional information and click the "Save" button.

It will now appear in the Saved section of My dashboard under the Searches tab. You can remove the search by clicking the bookmark icon labeled "Save".

Recent Activity

When you are logged into MyEBSCO, your search history and any items you have viewed on the EBSCOhost platform are saved for 24 hours under the Recent Activity page.

Holds & Checkouts

This is not an active tab.

Alerts

Journal Alerts

You can add alerts to your account to notify you when a specific journal adds issues or articles.

To set an alert for a journal, click on the "Publications" tab in on the Advanced Search page. Search for the journal title you are interested in. Click on the three dots menu to the right of the journal title for the publication tools and click, "Create Alert".

This will open a pop-up window that ask your preferences on notifications. Enter the required information and click on the "Create alert" button at the bottom of the page.

The alert will now appear on the Alert page in your My dashboard. You can remove the alert by clicking on the three dots menu and selecting "delete".

Search Alerts

You can set up alerts for your searches and be notified when new records have been added matching your parameters. This is useful for long term research projects or research of personal interest.

Run your search. Then click on the three dots menu located to the right at the top of the results list and select "Create alert".

This will open a pop-up window. Input any additional details on the search and your notification preferences. Click on the "Create alert" button at the bottom of the page.

Your search will now appear on the Alerts page under the "Search alerts" tab. You can remove the alert by clicking on the three dots menu and selecting "delete".

EBSCOhost offers a full user manual on their Help page. You can access the manual using the Help button located under "Research Tools" in the left hand menu.

Running a basic search in JSTOR is similar to searching in Wikipedia. You can use general keywords and phrases in your search and JSTOR will return results across its full collection that include some or all of your keywords. 

On the results page, the left-side menu can be used to filter your results. Check the "Content I can Access" button to access full-text articles.

Clicking the "Advanced Search" button above the search box opens an new page with additional options to control what kinds of results your search will return.

Use the provided Advanced Search fields, dropdown menus, and material types boxes to refine your search.

JSTOR also provides a Search Help page that provides specific overview of the advanced tools available on the platform. Examples include using Boolean Operators, Truncation, Wildcards, and Proximity searching.

• An Introduction to Searching on JSTOR
• Searching: Boolean Operators
• Searching: Truncation, Wildcards and Proximity
• and many more on the Search Help page

In addition to standard database searching, JSTOR includes several tools that can be used for exploring your topic, discovering resources, and extracting data from the JSTOR collection. Each of these resources can be found in the Tools menu in the upper-right portion of any search page.

• The JSTOR Understanding series:

• ​​​​​​​The JSTOR Understanding series presents primary resources with passages highlighted to indicate resources in JSTOR that have quoted the passage and provides links to those articles. This tool can be used to explore the scholarly interpretation of primary works, brainstorm topics, and learn about primary resources.

• Data for Research:

​​​​​​​

• The Data for Research tool uses Constellate, a JSTOR Labs project, to provide text analysis and text mining access to the JSTOR collection that can be used to create datasets such as term frequency over time and prevalence within a subject.
• This resource also provides built in visualization tools for your data set.

JSTOR offers a full LibGuides site of research guides to help researchers make the most of the platform. These assistance tools can be found in the page footer of any page by clicking the "LibGuides" or "Research Basics" links.

• Recommended guides include the following:
  • How to Use JSTOR
    • Searching JSTOR
  • Research Basics: an open academic research skills course

The search box at the top right corner of the O'Reilly home page can be used to search for materials using keywords, events, topics, titles, and more.

If you don't see a search box, click on the magnifying glass in the upper right corner to open the search box.

As you type in your keywords, the O'Reilly search will display resources which may be useful. You can click on one of the offered links or click "Enter" on your keyboard to see a full range of resources.

Once O'Reilly has returned a list of resources, you can sort them in a variety of ways. Click on the "Sort by" dropdown menu and choose: Relevance, Popularity, Rating, Date added, Publication date, or Last updated.

The sample search for "Python" returned 18,326 results. You can narrow the results using the Filters. You can access the filters either on the lefthand side of your screen or by clicking the "Filter" icon.

The filters allow you to sort by Your Role, Formats (books, courses, videos, audiobooks, and others), Skills, Publication date, Ratings (as given by other O'Reilly users), Publishers, Level (beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced), Language, and Duration.

The returned records list provides information about the resource. In addition to the title, author, type of material, and a summary, you will also find the rating, how long it is, who published it, when it published, and any notes on the language of the materials.

Set Your Role

O'Reilly allows you to filter for your "Role". A role can be your job or a skillset you are developing.

You set your Role from the Filters' list. Under "Your Role" click the "Select your role" button. You are able to change your role at any time.

A pop-up box will appear. You search for a role using the search box, or you can scroll down the list of roles available. Click on the role that is most similar to your needs and an explanation of that role will appear on the right side of the box.

If you don't see a role that meets your needs, you can click on "The role I want isn't listed." link in the lower right of the pop-up box. You will be able to create your own role and associate skills with it on the next screen.

If the role is what you want, click on the "Choose skill for [whichever role you chose]" link in the lower right of the pop up window.

You can now select from a list of skills related to your chosen role. When you are satisfied with your selections, click the "Save and view recommended content" link in the lower right of the pop up window.

If you'd like to change your role, you may do so under the Your Role dropdown menu by clicking "Edit your role". If you'd rather not be limited by a specified role, click "Reset" to remove all roles and skills.

O'Reilly offers several ways to browse their materials.

Explore Skills

Clicking on the "Explore Skills" button in the top menu opens a list of topics to browse. Clicking on one of the topics opens another menu that narrows down your choices. For example, "Programming Languages" opens a list of common languages used in computer programming. Selecting a language will send you to an overview of the topic and a list of results.

Start Learning

The "Start Learning" button allows you to jump to "Courses" or "Books" focused on learning a skill.

Featured

The "Featured" button offers "Expert playlists" and "Early releases". 

Expert Playlists are lists of O´Reilly content (sections from books, videos, audio books, courses) curated by industry experts to help users explore essential content related to a topic.

Early releases are materials that are unedited or pre-release versions of books and videos that are available before their official publication date. This offers the newest content available in fields that change rapidly.

Create a Playlist

Save interesting content to a playlist so you can easily come back to it later. The "Add to playlist" button is on the upper left of the item page.

O'Reilly will also list your history on your landing page.

This will open a pop-up window that asks which playlist you would like to add the title to. You can select one or more current playlists or create a new playlist by clicking on the link "+ Create a new playlist".

Create a title for your playlist and a brief description then click "Done" when you are finished or cancel if you decide not to create a new playlist.

Your playlist will be available in your profile. 

Highlight Books and Take Notes

Once you have chosen a book, you can highlight interesting or important sections, add notes and save those highlights to your profile.

Select a section using your mouse. A menu will appear with color options for the Highlight, Add Note, and Copy. To highlight, choose your color and click "Highlight". If you'd like to remove a highlight, click anywhere on the highlighted area and select "Remove".

If you'd like to add a note to your selection, click "Add Note" and type in the information you would like to associate with the selection. Then click "Save Note".

You can edit the note by clicking anywhere in the highlighted section and clicking "Edit Note".

To see you annotations, go to Highlights from Your O´Reilly by clicking on the Profile button. 

You can export your highlights and notes to a CSV file, by clicking "Export all highlights". This file includes book titles, chapter titles, date of highlight and links. It also shows your highlights and personal notes. 

O'Reilly offers "Answers" - a Generative AI tool to help you locate answers to specific questions. The tool accepts a natural language query, and uses the content of the database to generate a detailed response based on the combined content of the database.

When you click on the "Answers" button in the top menu, it takes you to the "Ask O'Reilly Answers" page. Here you can type your question into the search bar and click the "Ask" button.

In addition to the response to your question you will get sources from the database that you can review for yourself as well as "Related Questions to Explore". We strongly recommend you confirm the generated text with the sources cited. You can click on the citation number or the title of the citation to review the original material.