- Use Advanced Search.
- Check the box for "Articles" (unless you are specifically searching for book reviews or 17th-19th century British pamphlets).
- If you want results from a particular time period (such as the 1940s), use the Date Range boxes to enter a start and end year.
- Select "English" as the language (unless you do fluently read another of the languages listed).
- Check the boxes for approximately 1 to 4 subject areas from the list provided. This really does help cut down on irrelevant results.
- History is a given, and may be the only one you need.
- Other relevant subjects will depend on what you are researching.
- Start with a specific, focused search and work out towards a more general search when necessary. Often you will drown in results if you try to start with a general search.
- Put phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "Civil War".
- Use the language of the time period of the documents that you hope to find. An article written in 1902 may use very different language than an article written in 2002, and you may not find both of those documents with the same search terms. Give some thought to what you hope to find, and try to structure your search (or a series of multiple searches) accordingly.
