I hope this guide will provide some useful starting places for your research, as you work on your sourced papers. I'm available and happy to consult with you about any part of the research process, from finding and evaluating sources to understanding how to cite them. —Karen​ Storz, Research & Instruction Librarian
There are three major ways to find sources in the Wellesley College Library. Learn more about each and get started searching below!
You'll find all of these on the Wellesley College Libraries homepage as well as on this guide.
SuperSearch...
Because SuperSearch contains so much content from so many different kinds of sources, the results can sometimes be overwhelming and hard to focus. At the same time, SuperSearch doesn't contain everything the library has, so it can miss key sources. To search with more focus, precision, and depth, try some of the databases and other resources recommended on this guide.
Databases are resources that contain information that is organized to make it easier to search and access.
The most common kind of library databases contain articles from academic journals and other publications, but there are many kinds of databases — databases for images, videos, data, news, and more!
The databases here are just a few that could be useful for the kinds of topics you might be researching in this course. Check out our Databases list and filter by Subject and/or Content type to see other relevant databases. It's always a good idea to try in more than one database.
Full-text scholarly articles in all disciplines.
Scholarly journal articles and magazine articles in the fields of communications, mass media, journalism, television, film, radio, newspaper publishing, speech, broadcasting, and advertising.
Full-text peer-reviewed articles on gender, sex, and sexuality in history, sociology, psychology, education, art, and more.
Scholarly journal articles and books in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Does not include the most recent 3-5 years of many journals.
Political science resources, including scholarly and peer reviewed journal articles and think tank reports. Covers international as well as U.S. topics and sources.
Citations to journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations from the international scholarly literature of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines. Access to a thesaurus of psychological terms.
Scholarly and peer reviewed articles in sociology.
Peer reviewed articles on women's and gender studies, drawing on gender studies, education, sociology, history, and more.
Unsure about what database to use? Ask me!
The library catalog is another way to search for books, ebooks, and videos. Searching the catalog will give you a more focused set of results than searching for books in SuperSearch. You can also use the subject terms to easily browse related materials.
Start with a keyword search. Once you find a book that's relevant to your topic, click on the title and look for Subjects towards the bottom of the page to help you find "more like this."
Sample keyword search for
leads to linked subject terms and more books related to this topic:
These search tips work in SuperSearch and most library databases.
Use quotation marks " " to search words as a phrase. This will narrow your results.
"self esteem"
Use AND to combine multiple concepts in your search. This will narrow your results.
selfie AND "self esteem"
Use OR to find different ways your topic could be expressed. This will expand your results. Group these related terms in parentheses, so the database interprets them first. The following search will find results that have either one of the phrases in parentheses along with selfie.
selfie AND ("self esteem" OR "body image")
Use an asterisk * to find variant endings (e.g., gender, gendered, feminine, femininity, etc.). This will expand your results, because again, you're providing more options.
selfie AND (gender* OR "sex role" OR feminin* OR ​masculin*)
Quick Guide to Clapp Library Locations
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First Floor |
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Second Floor |
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Third Floor |
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Fourth Floor |
How to find items by call number
