HELP! I just need one article about . . . 

Student with a speech bubble: Ok. Don't panic. Here’s a quick way to find an article on just about any topic, especially if you don’t have much time.

Go to the Library homepage [opens a new window].

Click Quick Search.

See the Summon Search box at the top? Just type a word in there. Anything related to your topic will do. But here's the thing . . . DO NOT type a complete sentence or anything that even resembles a complete sentence in that box. 

Just type one word like biotechnology or a short phrase like social media.

Click the Search button.

Don't freak out when you see the very long list of results. Don't even look at that yet.

First, stop and think about what type of article you need:

  1. Scholarly, Academic, or Peer-Reviewed?
    Under REFINE YOUR SEARCH click Scholarly & Peer-Review.

  2. Regular magazine article?
    Under CONTENT TYPE click Magazine Article.

  3. Newspaper?
    Under CONTENT TYPE click Newspaper Article.

After this first decision, your work is not yet done. Your results list is probably still huge. Look under PUBLICATION DATE and click one of the following:

  • Last 12 months
  • Last 3 years
  • Last 5 years

Now you can start looking at the results list. It's probably still pretty big, but it's OK to start skimming through the list to see what article titles appear there. If you see something interesting, click the title to be taken to the database where that article "lives." You will be prompted to log in to myPittCC before you can access the article if you are not already logged in.Student with speech bubble:

 

Make Your Results List BETTER

To focus your search results around a more narrow topic, add keywords to the search box up at the top of the page.

If you typed social media in the search box, try adding something like bias.

Like this...

  • social media AND bias

Now click the search button and see what you get.

Try tweaking your search a little more...

  • social media AND confirmation bias

And one last trick is to put quotation marks around any phrase that you want searched together as one block of text.

  • social media AND "confirmation bias"

Your list (depending on your topic of course) will hopefully be a lot shorter, but also more focused.

 

Get Help!

If you have questions, ask a librarian. We really are here to help you! Student with speech bubble:

 

Tutorials and Research Guides:

Logging In:

  • We have an Online Access page with instructions and information about logging in to access databases.
     
  • There is a Chat with a Librarian box in Summon, on the Library homepage, and on our Ask a Librarian page to get immediate help. Chat librarians (available 24/7) have temporary login information that you can use in a pinch that will work with most of our databases when you can't get logged in to myPittCC using your credentials.

Error Messages:

When you click an article title in Summon from the results list, you might get an error message.

  • In a hurry? Just skip that article and try to find another one that will open.
     
  • Use the library chat box in Summon to see if the librarian there can get it for you.
     
  • Contact the Library with the article title, author, date, etc. and we can usually find it.

The photos in this post were taken by Erge Mahindra and are available on Unsplash. The speech bubbles were added by Angela Davis, PCC Library.
Updated: November 22, 2024 by A. Davis