Skip to Main Content
Phillips Library Banner

MTH 4990 Senior Capstone in the Mathematical Sciences

Books

Spartan Search

Did you know there's a way to search across all of the library's databases?

Spartan Search is the search box on the library's home page. When you click the magnifying glass search icon, a full search screen will open, giving you the option to use the advanced search and filter your results.

Learn more about choosing where to search

You can even get started with your search right here.

Search Tips

Keywords

Identify keywords for your topic and brainstorm narrower, broader, and related terms.

Example: Factors that affect academic performance in first-generation college students.

Academic Performance College First-Generation Students
Student Success Higher Education Children of Immigrants
Student Achievement University Minority Students
Learning Outcomes Community College Nontraditional Students

 

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators AND, OR, and NOT allow you to broaden or narrow your results in the library catalog and databases. You can easily use these to clarify what you need by choosing the advanced search option.

Peanut butter AND jelly, only results with both terms; Peanut butter OR jelly, results with either or both terms; Peanut butter NOT jelly, results with peanut butter only, excludes results with jelly and with both terms.

 

Found too many results?

Add more keywords.

Adding additional keywords to your search can help to further narrow your topic.

Example: college AND first-generation students AND academic performance

Use a filter

Look on the left side for ways you can filter your materials. Here are a few to consider, depending on your needs.

  • material type - such as a book, newspaper article, or review
  • peer-reviewed - to find scholarly articles
  • date - typically to find the most current materials
  • subject - to find articles about a certain topic

 

Found too few results?

Try different search terms.

What other words could you use to describe this concept? Brainstorm related terms, synonyms, and slightly different forms of your word or phrase. Also brainstorm broader categories or concepts it belongs to, as well as narrower elements or examples. (See the keywords section above for examples.)

It may also be useful to consider the official, academic, or formal way to write that term. This is more likely to be used in academic writing.

Use fewer search terms.

Sometimes less is more! The more words, phrases, or subjects you ask the database to find, the fewer sources will meet the criteria.

Use OR.

Broaden your search by using the boolean operator OR to link your terms.

Example: (college OR higher education OR university) AND first-generation students AND (academic performance OR student success)

 

Citation Chasing

Citation Chasing and "Cited By" Searching

Finding one article on your topic can often lead to a lot more! Browse the references of the article to find sources cited in their literature review. The authors are likely experts on the topic and have already done the searching for you! 
Some tools can also help you find sources that have cited the one you are reading since it was published. By nature, these will be more recent!

There is often a feature built into library databases that provides a linked list of references. In Spartan Search, click the red arrows next to the article's title to find the article's References (the downward-facing arrow), and articles that have cited this title (the upward-facing arrow).

screenshot of article record in Spartan Search highlights tools on the upper right with arrows pointing up and down

 

Don't see that option? You can manually copy that title into Spartan Search, ideally in quotation marks, to look for the full text. If you don't find your article, you can try searching on Google Scholar to see if there is a free copy available. Free copies are linked to the right of the article title.

Still can't find it? Create a request in your TIPASA Interlibrary Loan Account.

Home

Research

Help

Library Information

Information & Research Help

630-844-5437 (phone)

630-844-3848 (fax)

630-796-7615 (text)

Interlibrary Loan

630-844-5439

Phillips Library

347 S. Gladstone Ave.

Aurora, Illinois

60506-4892


Campus Map