search engines for term paper research?

i am needing to find some kind of search engine for my research paper. basically, i need one that will give me access to articles or at least an index to the particular topic that i need. the lowdown on struggles for independence in Latin America.
what i am also looking for is something that i found years ago…it is a site that gives one a synopsis of articles in journals. in this case, history. can anyone help?

(one of my instructors mentioned some to me, but he is Palestinian and combining that (language difficulties) with the usual contempt that younger hipper professors with doctorates have for middle-aged stuffy undergrads, you can imagine the chore that it is for me to communicate with him for further instruction. the reference librarian goes off and running all over the net and is too involved in that for me to correct her, or even understand her for that matter…she wants to help, but, alas, she has hundreds of other students.)

thanks!
hh

Maybe you can find something here.

i appreciate the help.Q, but unfortunately, it was entirely biomed!
thanks anyway!
hh

Ok, it sounds like you’re on campus - or have access to an academic library.
You also said that the reference librarian is off and running too fast for you to keep up. Tell her this. Go up to the desk when she or another librarian is there and explain what the problem is. If you get confused, ask him/her to repeat themself. I spend Saturdays working the reference desk at my university, and I’d rather have someone slow me down or ask me to repeat myself then have them not even understand what I’m talking about.
You’ll get better results doing that than from any internet site we can give you. And it will likely be more of what your professor wants - scholarly citations, right?

Oops. I pasted the wrong link: Try this one instead.

i’ve been using proquest for my article searches. unfortunately it’s hard to access. i always have to go a round about way. if your school is like mine, try the library home page. look to see what database searches it has. try looking under political science as well as history.

hmmm…these look pretty good, all.
i’m a thankin’ ye!
h

Go to your school library’s website, and poke around and see if they have any databases available, like this. (They only work if you’re a student, though, so you probably can’t use that link). I used those to do my entire 7-source English paper online in 3 days! :smiley:

(that is, the link will work so you can see what they look like, but you can’t search the databases from there)

At the University of Oklahoma, the journal databases are at:

http://libraries.ou.edu/eresources/LORA/

If you’re at OCU, or UCO, or OSU-OKC, or whatever OKC’s community college is, they likely have a similar link on their website.