Skip to Main Content

World Languages: Find Sources: Specific Languages (Spanish, French, etc.)

Find Sources for World Languages

Databases on World Languages:

Multidisciplinary Databases:

Search:

Suggested Resources: 

Watch & Practice:

Search:

Practice: 

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search: 

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Search:

Practice:

Suggested Resources:

Research, Culture & History:

Do you need to find images, videos, or music to support your cultural presentation project? Try searching the MC Library databases below for your keywords.  

Search:

Search Strategies

The MC Library has access to different kinds of search tools: 

  • RaptorSearch: Searches across most of the information that you can access through the MC Library. Find books, e-books, streaming audio and video, and DVDs and CDs as well as articles and other electronic resources from databases available through the library.
  • Databases: Collections of articles, videos, images, or other types of sources. Some databases cover a wide range of subject areas or source types (multidisciplinary), while other databases are discipline or format based (e.g., PsycINFO or AP Images).

Use the tabs in the box below to find suggested databases or other search tools to use for a variety of types of sources. 

MC students, faculty, and staff can access all of our search tools and online resources from on or off-campus.

Research Skills & Tips:

Unlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas: the keywords.

Keywords are individual words or short phrases that represent the main ideas in your topic, thesis, or research question. 

Example Question: What cultural holidays are typically celebrated in Spain?  

Keywords: culture, holidays, Spain

After you've identified your main ideas and some keywords to start with, think of additional search terms for each concept. These can be synonyms, related ideas, broader terms, or narrower terms. Since a database will match only what you type, using different terms for similar ideas can help you find more articles. 

Example Search Terms: 

  • culture: traditions
  • holidays: festivals, celebrations
  • Spain

Now that you have identified keywords, you will enter them in your chosen search tool's search box. Try more than one combination to find different sources.

Use the search operators AND & OR to combine your search terms. ​Use quotation marks to search for a specific phrase, with the words in that exact order: "social media" 

Use AND between your main ideas to narrow your search (all words will be found in each source): 
  • culture and holidays and Spain 
  • government and regulate and content and "social media" 
 

Diagram shows overlap between gov't & free speech

 Use OR to look for related search terms, in one search (at least one of the search words will be found in each source). This will increase the number of sources you find. Put related search terms in parentheses, and combine with other terms: 
  • culture and (festivals or holidays) and Spain
  • government and regulate and (Internet or "social media")

Diagram shows social media & internet highlighted

Research Skills & Tips:

Filter Results:

To make your results more manageable, use the database filters to limit your search results. For example:

  • Full-text access: To ensure that all items from your search results include the entire article or publication, select "full text" from filtering/refining options on the search results page.
  • Source types: If you know you only need peer-reviewed journal articles, select peer reviewed. Or, if you want to see only magazine articles, e-books, or another type of source, you can select only what you need. 
  • Publication date: If your sources must be from within the last five years, you can set the year of publication to reflect that. 

These options may be found in different locations of a database’s results page. In RaptorSearch, filter options are found on the left.

You can also set these options before you search from the Advanced Search screen in most databases. 

Sort Results:

Most database search results will be sorted by relevance. You can change this to sort by newest first, oldest first, etc. Look for the sort options near the top of the results list. 

Some MC Library databases provide access to articles written in languages other than English. Usually, you will be able to choose settings on an Advanced Search screen. This may look different, depending what database you use, but the general process should be similar. 

To search for articles in another language in RaptorSearch: 

  1. Go to the database search page (linked below)
  2. Select "Advanced Search"
  3. On the right side of the advanced search form, select from the Language dropdown
  4. Enter your search terms in the language selected, and click Search

Note: You can also limit by language after you complete your search. See the filter options on the left side of the results screen. 

To search for articles in another language in Academic Search Complete: 

  1. Go to the database search page (linked below)
  2. Select "Advanced Search"
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Search screen, to the "Language" box
  4. Select the language you would like the results to be written in
  5. Scroll back to the top of the search screen, enter the search terms in the selected language, and click Search

To search for news articles in another language in Ethnic Newswatch:

  1. Go to the database search page (link below)
  2. Select "Advanced Search" 
  3. Scroll to the middle of the page and select the checkbox for the appropriate language 
  4. Enter your search terms in the language selected, and click Search

Step 2: Find Sources

"Find Sources." Magnifying Glass.

To find sources, start by thinking about your research questions and the type of information you need. For example, you may need to search in different places to find statistics than you would if you need to find images. 

This page provides tips for how to develop a search strategy and also links to search tools you can use to find specific types of sources. 

As you search, consider the tips on the Evaluate Sources page, and assess each article, book, website or other source that you find.

Subjects: World Languages