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Mentor High School Science Guide: Home

Welcome!

Science

Welcome to the research guide for Ms. Cohen's Mentor High School science class! On this page you will find access to open databases where peer-reviewed scholarly articles are freely available on the web, as well as Lakeland Library databases that can be accessed on campus. Check the help tab for additional information and research assistance.

Search Tips

Whether using Google, an open database, or one of the library databases, make your searching easier by using these tips!

Keywords—Keywords are one way to create search strategies to locate relevant information on your topic. Keywords are the most significant words and phrases associated with your topic.

Quotation Marks/Phrase Searching—Use quotation marks to search for a specific phrase.

            Example: “climate change”    

Truncation—Usually using an asterisk*, increases the number of results you’ll retrieve by searching for variant endings of a word root.

            Example: hurricane* retrieves hurricane, hurricanes

Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT

And—narrows a search by inclusion.

Example: "climate change" AND hurricanes retrieves only sources that include both search terms, which limits the number of results.  

Or—expands a search.

Example:  "climate change" OR "global warming" will retrieve sources containing either term, expanding your pool of resources.    

Not—narrows a search by exclusion.

Example:  hurricanes NOT tornadoes  retrieves only sources that contain the first keyword, eliminating sources for keywords that follow not.

boolean operators, AND (only results that contain both keywords), OR (results containing keywords A or B), NOT (results containing keyword A, excluding any with keyword B)

Open Databases for Peer-Reviewed Articles

Lakeland Library Databases (access available on campus)

Need help or more information?

Megan Mamolen        Contact:

        Megan Mamolen, PhD, MLIS

          Librarian, Associate Professor

          Phone: 440-525-7310

          Email: mmamolen1@lakelandcc.edu

          Office: LibraryC-3051c

Lakeland Community College Library
7700 Clocktower Drive | Kirtland, Ohio 44094-5198 | 440.525.7425

lakelandcc.edu | my.lakelandcc.edu