Search Tips
The easiest way to search for information electronically is to enter keywords into the search box of the resource and see what type of results you get. This strategy, however, will often result in too few, too many, or irrelevant results.
In order to retrieve the most relevant results, you will need to construct a search strategy. A search strategy is a combination of keywords, truncation symbols, and boolean operators you enter into the search box of an electronic library resource or an Internet search engine.
For more help on breaking down your research into concepts, main ideas and possible search terms and synonyms, take a look at this handout on developing a search strategy.
Keyword Suggestions
If you need additional help with your searches, you might try some of these or a combination of keywords from them.
Provides bibliographic information, abstracts, index terms, reviews, and the full-text for ACM conference proceedings.
ACM DIGITAL LIBRARY (ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY) HAS AN UPDATED INTERFACE THAT WENT LIVE JANUARY 1.
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This collection focuses on engineering challenges and the business and social implications of new technology. Subjects include acoustics, chemistry, communication and information technology, energy resources, engineering, plastics, robotics and more.
This link opens in a new windowProvides open access to approximately 745,000 e-prints which cover subject areas such as physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics.
This link opens in a new windowContains full-text journal and magazine articles covering topics such as computer science, programming, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, information systems, robotics, and software.
Manipulate 3D interactive models to visualize and understand concepts in biology, chemistry, earth, and space science.
The IEEE Xplore digital library provides access to the world's highest quality technical literature in electronics, electrical engineering, computing, biomedical engineering and related technologies. This includes full text access to over 5.4 million documents including IEEE journal articles, magazine articles, conference papers, and active standards.
This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to technology, creative, and business books and videos from leading publishers. All of the content is vetted, reliable, and provided by the world's leading publishers and authors.
Creating an Account with O’Reilly for Higher Education:
On the login page, select "Not listed? Click here." in the "Select your institution" box. Then create an account using your university email address.
You must use your university email when registering. For example:
Use this account to access content.
Questions? Call the University Library at 210-784-1500.
This link opens in a new windowCovering the areas of natural science, technology, and engineering, this resource features materials in both English and Spanish from journals, ebooks, and magazines.
Included:
This link opens in a new windowAccess multidisciplinary research delivered with info on emerging trends, subject specific content, and analysis tools. Includes Emerging Sources Citation Index: 2005-present, the Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1980-present.
You can access library resources by searching Google Scholar!
If you are on-campus, you will be automatically recognized as a member of the A&M-SA community. If you are off-campus, you will need to configure the settings for Google Scholar so that it knows you are a member of the A&M-SA community. Please see How to Set Up Google Scholar for Off-Campus Use for instructions.
Please keep in mind that not everything available through your library is cited on Google Scholar, so be sure to also use the library's online databases for your research needs. You can also ask your subject librarian for help!
You will need to enter your A&M-SA network username and password to get into the library's databases from off-campus. If you need assistance with this, please visit our Off-Campus Access page.