Using Article Databases
Finding scholarly articles in article databases is a multi-step process:
1. Decide which one to use. There is no database devoted exclusively to articles on the Caribbean and Carnival, but the ones listed on this page should give you plenty of results. You can also browse a list of the Library's databases organized by subject or alphabetically if you want to branch out into disciplines like religion, film, gender studies, and so on.
2. Always use the Advanced Search option.
3. Databases don't like full sentences! Build your search using a few words that best describe the main concepts of your topic. These are your "keywords." See box below for some keyword ideas.
4. Select whichever filters are appropriate but do not click "full text" as one of the filters because this will severely limit your results. See #5 below.
5. If the full text of an article is not available in the database itself, use the 
link. This will take you to the online article on another platform or, if we don't have access to the online version, it will offer you an option to order it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
4. Most article databases allow you to save, email, cite, download, or export citations or full articles.
Keyword Suggestions
Use the asterisk symbol * to bring up variant endings of words. Example:
perform* will also retrieve performer, performers, performance, performative...
Use any combination of keywords that best describe your topic. Example:
caribbean AND carnival AND perform*
Keyword examples:
- carnival
- caribbean
- west indies
- gender
- identity
- performance
- feminism
- black
- colonialism
- capitalism
- migration
- representation
- music
- dance
- power
- calypso
- metaphor
- diaspora
