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Adams State University
Nielsen Library

COMM 255 - Fundamentals of Media Communication: Finding articles / books from citation

Knowing what to look for

The easiest way to search for an article from a citation is to use Google Scholar.

  1. First, you need to confirm that what you're looking for is an article. Make sure the citation includes a journal title.
  2. Start out by identifying the article title, and also make note of more information like author name, journal title, etc.
  3. Here is an example of a few references from an article with some of the important parts labeled:

Google Scholar for articles

Start out by searching Scholar for the article title, and then add more information like author name, journal title, etc., if your article doesn't pop up right away.

When you see the article, look for a link to full text on the left (usually, you'll see a link from EBSCO, JSTOR, or another university):

If you don't find your article in Scholar, you can try submitting an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request on our Article Request Form (use the same login information you use for Blackboard).  Typically, this doesn't take more than a couple of days.

Library catalog for books

When you're looking for a specific book, search the title in the library catalog. If it doesn't show up, check the "In Prospector" listings near the bottom of the page. If you see the book, click the title.

From there, you can click "Request It":

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