IRIS 42: Information and Research Instruction Suite for two-year colleges

Diving Deep with Search Engines

Put your credit card away

Suppose you're surfing the web and run across articles that look interesting. Some of them may be there full text. Google Scholar, for example, is doing some pretty incredible things with making articles available. Some publishers provide free access to some of their articles.

When it comes to scholarly, academic articles, however, it's more likely that you'll run into roadblock password boxes, like the ones shown below. Your library login only works for databases that you access through your library's web site.


Your library password only works for databases that you access from the library's web page. Don't pay for articles online. They may be available inyour library's databases, or your library can get the through interlibrary loan, usually for free.
Never, ever, ever pay to get access to articles in these deep web databases! Go back to your own library's web site and follow links to see if your library already has the article. If it's not available in your library, you can still get the article through your library's interlibrary loan (usually for free). It may take a few days to receive your article, so plan ahead. Next >>