SJSU Research Guides: Humanities, Education, and Arts Team: How to Use Databases

Electronic Journals Access

Electronic Journals
San Jose State subscribes to several electronic journal databases. Here you can search for a journal by name and see whether and through what database or website we have access to it.
A-Z List of SJSU databases
Complete list of databases available to SJSU students.
SJPL Articles and Databases
Databases provided by the San Jose Public Library
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SJSU students and faculty can use SJPL articles and databases if they have a library card from King Library. Once you have a King Library card, you can use your Tower Card ID and library PIN to access.

Database Handouts

Literary Reference Center
Guide to Literary Reference Center, which provides access to biographies, bibliographies, criticism, reference sources, interviews, and plot summaries of works and authors.
Using MLA Bibliography
MLA Bibliography is a huge literature database containing book essay, article, and dissertation citations.

General Handouts and FAQs

FAQ - English Research
Guide to searching MLA Bibliography and other English Literature resources
Library Research Cheat Sheet for Education
Guide to the library and important databases in Education

Databases With Tutorials

Many databases include tutorials or introductory guides to their basic use. Usually these can be found by looking for "Help" or a similar link from the database's main search screen. Below is a list of some of the databases from our Essential Databases tab that include such guides, and basic instructions on how to find them.

Art Full Text
Select "Help" in the top right corner, then "Tutorial" in the top right corner of the pop-up window that appears. Then select "Full Text Databases." This will download a PDF guide to using the database.
This tutorial also describes the use of other Wilson full text databases, such as Education Full Text, Library Literature & Information Science Full Text, and Humanities Full Text, all of which are featured on the Essential Databases tab of this guide.
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FULL TEXT periodical articles (about 1/3 of the total) with some images; indexing & abstracts for others. Coverage includes over 370 periodicals, including yearbooks and museum bulletins.
Literary Reference Center
Select "Help" in the top right corner, then "Literary Reference Center Tutorials" under "Welcome" on the left side of the pop-up window that appears. This will open a new window that plays an audiovisual tutorial to Literary Reference Center.
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Features a literary glossary for looking up literature terms. Can search the American Heritage(R) Dictionary, 4th Edition. Literary Reference Center also features excellent author biographies and Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. You must have a San Jose Public Library card number to access this resource.
MLA Bibliography
Below the bar that reads "MLA International Biography," select "Guided Tour." The pop-up window that appears includes a link to a PowerPoint tour of the site, as well as a zipped version of the PowerPoint file.
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Indexes criticism of modern literature, and works on language and folklore, published in books, book chapters, and journal articles. It does not index the literary works themselves. Beowulf is considered modern. How to use the MLA Internation Bibliography Modern Language Association of America's version. How to Use the MLA Bibliography SJSU's vendor's (Thompson/Gale) version.

For more information, please contact Toby Matoush
Oxford Music Online
Find the heading "Find Out More" on the right side of the page, and select the link "Guided Tour" in that section. This will take you to a page with links to PowerPoint files explaining how to use Grove Music Online and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, as well as instructions on how to view the files even if you do not have PowerPoint.
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Music research gateway that includes Grove Music, Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford Companion to Music. Authoritative online music dictionary/encyclopedia. Articles include biographies of composers and performers; definitions of terms, styles, and concepts; essays on world music, popular music, and jazz; descriptions of musical instruments and their makers, etc. Gives music examples and links to related web sites (some of which display images and play sounds).

For more information, please contact Patricia Stroh