Pfeiffer Library: Dragon Education Core: DEC300: Connect

Find Library Resources

Are you looking for a specific database? Try our A to Z list.

You are currently searching Academic Search Complete. For more options, see our database list.

Want a print book and don't live near Ohio? Try searching WorldCat to find materials near you!
If you're looking to use an eBook, try searching just the Tiffin University catalog.

You are currently searching our journal holdings. If you wish to find an article, try searching one of our databases on the database list.

Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Films on Demand (FOD) offers a large variety of curriculum-focused, streaming video titles from producers such as Films for the Humanities and Sciences, PBS, A&E, History, ABCNews, BBC, NBC News, Biography, National Geographic, and others. This resource offers thousands of streaming videos in a broad range of subjects, from health and medicine to humanities and social sciences.
Archival Films & Newsreels This link opens in a new window
A rare view of what rush hour in London looked like in 1897. The dramatic and suspenseful newsreel announcing the crash of the Hindenburg zeppelin. President Ronald Reagan’s challenging speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Throughout modern history, cameras have recorded public events, wars, cultural phenomena, and government programs. This collection is a treasure trove of archival and historical films from multiple sources.

Scroll through the list to find a helpful research guide or visit the research guides page to see subject groups.

Recommended Databases

Searching an individual database returns fewer, but sometimes more focused, results than a DragonQuest search. We recommend...

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Index, abstracts, and full text for many scholarly publications covering all academic areas of study.
Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers research journals and books on Criminal Justice. Contains abstracts and citations to 400,000+ research items, mostly from 1960 to the present.
EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text scholarly, reference and professional eBooks.
NewsBank This link opens in a new window
Full text access to thousands of newspapers in the United States and worldwide.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collections This link opens in a new window
An EBSCOhost database indexing 550+ scholarly/peer-reviewed journals back to 1965 on a wide range of psychiatric and psychological subjects. Updated daily.
Sociological Collection This link opens in a new window
Information in all areas of sociology, including social behavior, human tendencies, interaction, relationships, community development, culture and social structure.

Broad Library Search Strategies

If you're struggling to find information, try these ideas:

Research Starters

Research Starters provide quick overviews of a broad topic. Research Starters appear at the very top of your DragonQuest search results if one happens to be available on your topic. The following image shows the location of a Research Starter on the broad topic "drug abuse."

Many Research Starters contain additional links to topics and resources, along with recommended search strategies to help you locate additional information or explore related topics.

Use Resource Types

You can use the "Refine Results" area in DragonQuest to limit your search results to a specific type of resource OR narrow down our list of databases by the types of materials they contain. As an example, if you're looking to identify a community problem, you might benefit by browsing our collection of electronic newspapers. The following image shows the A to Z list dropdown menus to help you select databases which only contain certain types of resources.

Keywords

Consider using some of the following "community problem" keywords in DragonQuest:

drug abuse
petty crime
poverty
racism
teen pregnancy
clean drinking water
hunger
inequality
child abuse and neglect
affordable housing

A keyword search is the broadest search you can conduct inside our discovery service. For more information on search and retrieval in DragonQuest, you may also want to consult our DragonQuest tutorial.

Focused Library Search Strategies

Opposing Viewpoints

If you want to locate pro/con discussions about your topic, we recommend:

Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Presents informed differing views of an issue to enable you to draw your own conclusions.
Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Contains many core topics, each with an overview (objective background / description), point (argument), and counterpoint (opposing argument).

Statistics

Locate statistics through the library. We recommend the following:

Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Quantitative facts of American history.
Cambridge Historical via OhioLINK
Sage Data This link opens in a new window
A data download and visualization tool hosting social science data about U.S. states, counties, cities, and metropolitan statistical areas from more than 150 different government and nongovernment sources.
UNdata This link opens in a new window
From the United Nations, this international database is searchable and includes several different types of statistics, including population, business, health, and housing.

Tutorials

If you're having difficulty navigating any of the databases recommended in this section, check out our tutorials.

Research outside of the University Library

Web Strategies

When browsing the web for information, consider the following search strategies:

Search for "community resources" and the name of your city, county, and state through a search engine like Google.
Search social media platforms for groups and pages in your area.
Locate government (.gov) websites for your city, county, and state.
Consider public entities (schools, churches, shelters, food pantries, and other non-profit organizations).
Look for community calendars of events and organizational meeting schedules to help you connect with people in your area.

Recommended websites include:

State Government Resources
A searchable database of websites associated with state governments.
Official Guide to Government Information and Services
Information about the federal government, resources, and issues.

Networking Strategies

Smaller communities may face greater challenges with keeping web-based content up to date. If the web fails you, we suggest that you...

Pick up a print copy of a local newspaper
Visit your local public library

Field Interviews

Depending on your research topic, you may need to conduct field interviews to collect data. We recommend viewing our guide on conducting field interviews below!