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PAD 5145 - Volunteerism in Nonprofit Management: Home

Course Guides

This guide provides selected ebook collections and databases, search tips and APA resources for the PAD 5145 Volunteerism in Nonprofit Management library assignment. The library subscribes to many ebook collections and hundreds of academic databases. This guide lists just a few databases that can be used for public administration, nonprofit management, and business topics. eBooks are useful to find background information and get an overview of a topic. Databases provide access to academic (peer reviewed) articles and original research typically required for course assignments. Our Databases by Subject page provides direct links to databases associated with discipline or topic related areas. 

If you have questions, please email me through your Canvas course or Corinne.BIshop@ucf.edu If you'd like to schedule a one-hour appointment, please see my calendar for scheduling https://ucf.libcal.com/appointments/bishop/main 

Social Sciences & Graduate Engagement Librarian

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Corinne Bishop
Contact:
John C. Hitt Library (Main)
& Downtown Campus Library
407-823-2584
Website

eBook Collections

Field Searches

Knowing some common search strategies can help you locate topic-related resources such as books/ebooks and journal articles.

Field searching is used when you want to search for terms within a specified section of a book/ebook or article record. Fields often include: Author, Title, Journal Title, Abstract, Subject or Descriptor, or Anywhere within the Full-Text.

In addition to using the title or author fields to search the library catalog or a library database, searching the subject or descriptor field can help make your search more precise -- and subject field searches can be combined with keyword searching.

Here's how you might begin a database search for a topic:

  • Start your search using keywords that describe your topic
  • Browse the search results and choose 2 or 3 that are most relevant
  • Click the abstract for more information about the article and to see what keywords or subject terms (if any) are used to describe what the article is about.
  • Next, redo your search using the terms you found to run addition searches.

Library Databases

Search Terms

Common search strategies:

  • AND is used to connect search terms and means you want to see each term in the search results.
    (using AND to connect topic-related concepts helps narrow a search) 
    Example: anxiety AND teenagers
  • OR means you want to see either term in the search results.
    (using OR expands a search and allows you to search for synonyms/related terms)
    Example: teenagers OR teens OR adolescents
  • NOT (which you may use occasionally) excludes terms from the search.
    Example: violence NOT war
  • Using both AND and OR in a search looks like this:
    Example: social media AND anxiety OR stress AND teenagers OR teens OR adolescents