Q. I need to find an article about a topic like littering. Where should I start?

Our Discovery Catalog searches through a lot of our databases all at once and is found on our library homepage. It can be a good place to start to cast a wide net to see what is available. It will even find items the library doesn't own, but can possibly get via interlibrary loan (ILL) – though you can limit those results out after doing a search to items just held by the TCC Library. ILL is a free service for TCC students and employees. Here is an FAQ that teaches you how to use the catalog.

After doing a search in Discovery, you can limit to the source type you are needing (articles, books, video, etc.) and even to specific dates. If searching for a peer-reviewed article, you can even limit to that! Here's some examples of a search that would match the above research topic! 

Search result examples for this topic (that you can change the keywords or limiters for in a new search): 

• Key word search for '"litter" "united states"' limited to peer-reviewed (articles)
• Keyword search for 'Legislation litter' limited to peer-reviewed (articles)
• Keywork search for 'pollution and litter united states' (articles)

For tips on how to search in our databases and catalog using things like Boolean operators, we recommend this FAQ. Keep in mind, you may not find one perfect source for your topic, but this FAQ can help you understand what to do in that situation.