Route 66: The Mother Road: Finding Scholarly Sources

• Use keywords in library databases instead of sentences and questions. Use the Keyword worksheet to plan and focus your research.
  • When searching the library catalog or one of TCC's literary databases, try a search for your topic keyword(s) along with "Route 66" or "Steinbeck." For example: ("migration" AND "Route 66") or ("Biblical Imagery" AND "Grapes of Wrath"). Try several variations to maximize the number of relevant results. 
• To look for an exact phrase, type your phrase within quotation marks ("  "). The results will contain the exact words in the quotation marks.
• Use an asterisk (*) at the end of a root word, known as truncation, to retrieve results containing any form of the root word.
  • Example: teen* will find teens, teenage, teenager, teenagers
• Use filters to refine your results by subject terms/topics, date, type of publication, language, peer-reviewed, etc.
• Some databases use Boolean Operators. Narrow or expand your search by combining keywords using  AND / OR / NOT operators, as shown below.

Tulsa Community College is networking with libraries all across the country.  If there is a book or journal article that the TCC libraries don't own, that item can be requested on interlibrary loan.  There is usually no charge for the service.  Fill out the online request form, or if in a database and there is no full text to the article available, look for the interlibrary loan icon and request the item directly from the database.