Research Guides: Wheeler: Research Resources

Library Databases

Career & Technical Education Database This link opens in a new window
Research on virtually any technical topic, including: computing science; healthcare; building trades; auto mechanics; sales and retail; accounting; graphic design; and photography.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Search the majority of our ProQuest databases at one time. Subjects include the arts, business, health & medicine, history, literature, science & technology, and social sciences.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database including periodicals and peer-reviewed journals.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Market and consumer data and all things statistics. Downloadable data, numbers, and facts in various formats on various topics and industries.
WorldCat This link opens in a new window
The Madigan Library Discovery catalog includes the largest network of content and services. Includes articles, books, eBooks, videos, and digital items.

List of Databases
A-Z list of the library's databases. Filter the list by subject as well as by database type (articles, books, standards, etc.)

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search across many disciplines and sources for scholarly articles, theses, books, abstracts, patents and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other reputable websites.

Record Your Findings

Library Research Worksheet
Please use this worksheet to brainstorm your research questions and to record the resources you find and the keywords you use to help save you time as your complete your research paper. You do not need to turn this worksheet in, it's just to help you specify your search, identify keywords, and keep track of your resources.

Reliable Websites

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor and provides data from the field of labor economics and statistics as well conducts research into wages and standard of living.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Career Outlook
Career Outlook articles provide data and information on a variety of topics—including occupations and industries, pay and benefits, and more. These articles are helpful for students, career counselors, jobseekers, and others planning careers.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is the government's premier source of career guidance featuring information on hundreds of occupations.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook A-Z Job Index
Browse within this Occupational Outlook Handbook's A-Z Index to find information on thousands of different jobs

Access the Library Anywhere

If you are off campus, you will need to enter your network username and password--the same login used to log onto a computer on campus--to access the databases. Example: if your email is abc1@pct.edu, your network username would be abc1.

Search Tips

Each databases have hundreds of thousands of resources. In order to find results that you want, your search terms to be specific. Use these tips to search the databases:

Combine keywords using AND for more precise results*. If you use AND between your search terms, the database will only retrieve items that contain both search terms. If you search for apples AND oranges, you'd see resources that are about apples and oranges.
Combine keywords using OR for broader results*. If you use OR between your search terms, the database will retrieve items that have one or the other search terms in them. If you search for apples OR oranges, then you'd see resources that are about apples and other resources that are about oranges.
This is not used as much, but you can also insert NOT between your search terms to exclude a search term from your search*. This can be useful. For example, if you are writing a paper on apples but many of the articles you find are about apples and oranges, you can search apples NOT oranges and the database will exclude the term orange from your search, only retrieving articles on apples.
Use "quotation marks" to search for phrases. Putting quotation marks around a multiple word search term, like "honey crisp apples," will only retrieve articles that contain that specific search term.
If you are researching a particular topic like "teaching," you can place an asterisk (*) in your search term that will modify your search. Your search term would be teach* and because you placed an asterisk at the end of teach, the search will find articles that have the word teach, teaching, teacher. Placing an asterisk after the search term will retrieve the different forms of the word from the stem of the word teach.
Use the Advanced Search feature to combine search categories or terms, as well as limit by date, source type, format, etc.

*: AND, OR, and NOT are called Boolean operators.