CE/ECE/ME Engineering Senior Design Project

• Use terms found in your background reading on the subject
• Use the Thesaurus or Subject Terms listings, if available, in the databases you are searching
• When you find a record for an item that is useful to you, look at its subject headings or descriptors for more ideas

If you get too many results— 

• Consider narrowing down the search terms in an Abstract or even in the Title field
• Try searching by Subject, rather than by Keyword (or by a combination of Subjects and Keywords or other fields)
• Try phrase searching (usually by using " " around the phrase)
• Use other limiters, if appropriate, such as a specific type of publication (Peer Reviewed, for example) or a specific time period

If your search does not yield enough results---

• Check your search to see if you entered it and spelled it as you intended
• Try other search terms and use OR between the terms to find items with any one of the terms
• Try using a truncation symbol (often an *) to retrieve results with varying forms of a word (educat*, for example)
• Look at the bibliographies of items that are closely related to your topic. 
• Search in a different database or ask a reference librarian

Library electronic journals and databases are accessible from off-campus. When searching for electronic journals and databases from off-campus, a login screen will ask for your username and password.  Your username and password is your Career Account username and password (the same credentials you use to log in to campus workstations).

If you’ve already searched databases, eJournals, and Primo, and still can’t find the full-text of an article, place a request via interlibrary loan service. Requests typically take 7-10 days to be filled. Articles will be sent in pdf format to your ILL account. They will remain in the account for 30 days.   It’s your responsibility to retrieve, print or save the article.