Permanent URL: https://library.spscc.edu/guides/pop-culture
After getting some background on your topic, we'll be ready to dive into more specific, narrow information.
Find online and print books through Quick Search.
Good For: In-depth information on a narrow topic. Chapters on a narrow topic.
Examples: Academic Search Complete, Research Library
Good For: Finding news, popular magazine articles, and scholarly articles.
Quick Tip: Match your database to the subject area of your topic or your class. Consider what type of experts are writing about your topic.
This video describes how to use databases at SPSCC. It covers choosing databases, types of sources in databases, and search tips for finding great sources.
Use these databases to get started. These are both multi-subject databases, which means that they include popular and scholarly sources from many different subject areas. For example, in these multi-subject databases, you can find articles from fields like psychology, education, computer science, and more.
Video by Yavapai College Library
Google Scholar is a tool to search for academic articles. There is decent coverage of pop culture and media studies journals.
Not everything in Google Scholar will be available for free. Use interlibrary loan through SPSCC Library to borrow anything you cannot get access to.
Use Quick Search, from the library website, to find scholarly books.
1. Enter your search terms into the search box. TIP: Questions or sentences don't work well.
2. To the left of your results list, scroll down and limit results to Books. eBooks say Available Online. Print books have a call number.
3. Look for author credentials or a university press publisher to determine if it is a "scholarly book." See video for details.
This is a selection of journals at SPSCC that have a focus on pop culture. Use the links below to search within a specific journal.
To search for a topic across many different journals at once, use the "Databases for Pop Culture Research" tab of this guide.
