You can certainly try to find scholarly articles using GOOGLE SCHOLAR.
However, be aware that you will loose many of the advantages of using the library databases. For example:
-You will loose the ability to search for articles in a specific discipline (History for example)
-You may not have access to the most recent articles. Google Scholar often retrieves older articles because the publishers don't want to make the more recent ones available for free
-You will not have access to features such as: Citing this article in the format of your choice; Including the articles in a folder and emailing them to yourself; Limiting your search by date or specific subject headings, etc.
-Finally, in many cases, you will not have access to the full-text of the article. When you are on campus, Google Scholar connects automatically to an article if the library has a subscription to the journal. If you are connecting from home, this will not happen.
The reason you look for scholarly articles is to find out what other scholars have said about your topic. Because this is a History class, you want to find articles with an historical perspective. You best bet is to use articles published in History journals. To locate them, use the following databases first:
After searching in AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE or HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS, you can try other more general databases to expand your results.
To get a list of all the databases available at SCU, go to the library home page and click on the DATABASES tab.
Searching Tips:
-Always use the "Advanced Search" mode. Just enter keywords describing an aspect of your topic in each of the boxes For example if you are interested in the history of epidemics or contagious diseases in American cities, you could do a search like this:
-You can use synonyms or related terms to describe your topics. Use the OR connector between synonyms and related terms. For example, epidemic* or disease* or influenza
-You can use an asterisk at the end of a word to retrieve various endings. For example, disease* will retrieve the singular and plural form of the world.
-Always read the summary (abstract) of the article to see if it's really relevant to your topic.
-If the full-text of an article is not readily available iin the database, click on the FIND IT AT SCU icon to see if it's available in another database. If it's not you will have the option of using the Interlibrary Loan Service. It's free and very fast!