Spotlight on Roper iPoll

The library has a new database for you: Roper iPoll. This database can be accessed by using the Database, E-books, and Media quick link, then scrolling to Roper iPoll. You will also find a link in various Research Guides like history, business, social work, political science. This database includes poll data dating back to 1935 from both the United States and the world. You will find questions, responses, and statistics from polls about public opinions and behaviors related to social issues, politics, pop culture, and more.

You can search for keywords – like fitness – to find questions, poll titles, responses, and abstracts. You may also want to search fitness as a topic to find polls relating to fitness, which would include questions without the word fitness. Roper iPoll also gives the option of narrowing searches by location, date, and exclusion of specific words. You can choose to find data only from the United States or maybe Australia.  You can also search for polls conducted in specific states. This may be helpful for research about a particular area.

Roper iPoll is a great place for finding polling statistics for any research assignment. This data can inform project proposals and provide public opinion background for a given research topic. If you need help using Roper iPoll or any of our databases, please contact a librarian or schedule a research coach appointment. We are always happy to help.

Spotlight On Christian Periodical Index (CPI)

Looking for articles a Christian studies assignment? Christian Periodical Index or CPI would be a great place to start. This database is available to the Union community through our EBSCOhost platform, so you will see similarities between Academic Search Complete and CPI. You can also search in CPI while searching in another EBSCO database. To narrow your search, use the filters like date and peer-reviewed on the left side of the results page.  

CPI is primarily an indexing database, which means you will find information about the title, main ideas, and publication information, but you may need to use Interlibrary Loan or a different database to access the full article. For help locating an article from CPI, check out our Interlibrary Loan or Finding an Article from a Citation video or contact the library. Christian Periodical Index has articles and records (article information) from over 140 journals dating back to 1976. They are also continually adding articles to the database. You can find articles from journals like Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and Worship Leader. CPI covers most doctrines of evangelical Christianity. This database is not limited to religion or theology; you can also find journals from other areas like science, literature, medicine, and education.  

CPI will be a helpful resource to find a Christian perspective in different fields and also provides options for researching different theologies. To access Christian Periodical Index click on the Databases, E-books, and Media quick link on the library’s homepage, then scroll until you find Christian Periodical Index. If you need help using CPI or with research for any assignment, schedule a research coach appointment. Your research coaches are always happy to help.  

Spotlight On IEEE Database

IEEE, a database you have access to as a Union student or faculty member, has many articles for research in engineering and technology. To use IEEE, go to our Databases, E-books, and Media quick link on the library’s homepage and then find IEEE. We recommend you create a free account for IEEE using your Union email. This will allow you to use additional features not available when are not logged into your account.  

You can search in IEEE using both a basic and advanced search. Once your results appear, you may want to use the subscribed content or open access only filters to make sure you will be able to find the full article. You will also notice a lock icon next to the article titles; green locks are available immediately while red lock articles will need to be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Another way to filter results is type of resources. This would be helpful if you are looking for a specific type of resource such as an article but not conference proceedings.  

If you decide to create an account, one feature I like is the ability to save your search and get email notifications when new content from your search is available. The personal account will also give you the ability to use the IEEE app on your phone or tablet. Please note when using the app, you will want to be on Union WiFi or look for open access content only, so you can access the articles from the app.  

If you have questions or need help researching in IEEE, please schedule a research coach appointment. A librarian would be happy to meet with you and answer your questions.   

Spotlight On Gale’s Religion and Philosophy

Religion and Philosophy is a Gale hosted database which the Union community can access. You can get to this database by visiting our Databases, E-Books, and Media quick link then searching for Religion and Philosophy or using the letter filters. Since this database is hosted by Gale, it will have the same search features as Union’s other Gale databases like Opposing Viewpoints.  

One of the features I really like in Gale databases is the topic finder. This is very useful when you are trying to narrow down your topic. You can type your main topic into the search bar and find subheadings or keywords seen most often when your main topic is searched. If you click on the other keywords articles, both topics will appear. Another cool feature in some Gale databases is the Lexile or reading level filter/limiter. The reading level limiter allows you to see how difficult the article will be. Some articles even have the option of changing the level (this only applies to Gale written content). Although you can change the reading level, you will not find many scholarly sources with a lower reading level.  

Religion and Philosophy is updated daily, and you will be able to find journal and magazine articles, videos, books, and images. This is a great resource for multimedia materials. If you want to access multimedia materials, you will need to remove the peer-reviewed filter. The main goal of Religion and Philosophy database is to provide material on the impact of religion on culture throughout history. The connections between world religions (including Christianity) with literature, social sciences, science, justice, education, etc. are explored in this database. So, if you have a research assignment in your theology, Christian studies, or philosophy classes you may want to check out Religion and Philosophy database. 

Spotlight On World Book Advanced

World Book Advanced is the digital version of the big encyclopedia sets we used in the days before Google. Instead of pulling the A book off the shelf to look up information about the Artic, you can search World Book Advanced. You can also find media clips for various topics that would not be available in our print encyclopedias.  

World Book Advanced can give you reliable answers to those random Google questions, like “how much would I weigh on the moon?” World Book Advanced is also helpful for gaining background information on historical events, animals, geography, famous people (past and present), literature, music, and so much more. If you don’t know where to begin when researching your topic, try looking it up in World Book Advanced first. After reading some encyclopedia entries, you can narrow your topic or find additional ideas related to your topic. A basic search will bring up encyclopedia entries, back in time pieces, images, as well as other media like graphs, tables, and videos.  

The homepage of World Book Advanced has options to look up current events, showcased events based on the background images, and access to their research and resources. You may want to check out some of the research and resources options like behind the headlines which explains in more detail major news stories or pathfinders which give lists or primary and secondary sources on a particular topic. If you are looking to increase your knowledge for trivia, you might try the interactive maps, today in history, or compare places. Although these options may not be as helpful for in depth research, they will definitely be beneficial for background information gathering.  

You can access World Book Advanced through the library’s Databases, E-Books, and Media quick link; scroll until you find World Book Advanced or use the letter filters to speed the process. You will also find World Book Advanced listed on the Additional Resources tab of many of our Research Guides.  

How To Navigate Our Database List

Need help with navigating our online database list? We recently updated the list to make it more user-friendly and mobile-friendly. Instruction Librarian Amber Wessies walks you through how to use the database list in this brief tutorial: