Guides: SearchBox: What is SearchBox?

When to use SearchBox

Use SearchBox throughout your research process!

Don't use SearchBox:

When you need to perform in-depth searches that require extensive use of controlled vocabulary. Use a specialized database like: PsycINFO or Sociological Abstracts instead.
When you need to find statistical/financial data or company industry reports (see the Business guide for guidance)
When you need to find images from an art database like ARTstor

Questions about SearchBox?

Ask the Information Desk for help with searching and managing your results. Call (202) 319-5070 or stop by the Information Desk on the first floor in Mullen Library.

If you have a question about searching for resources in a specific field, you can also make an appointment with a liaison librarian in your area. Not sure who that is? Check the liaison librarians directory.

Introducing SearchBox

What is SearchBox?

SearchBox is a search engine that provides a single starting point to find and access the University Libraries' resources — including books, scholarly journals and journal articles, ebooks, and more. From a single box, SearchBox searches full-text content, article citations, and library catalog records and returns a list of results ranked by relevance. SearchBox is a quick and easy way to start your research.

What can I find with SearchBox?

journal articles from major databases including: JSTOR, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, and more
- most, but not all, of our databases are covered by SearchBox. Find out what isn't covered here.
newspaper and magazine articles from major databases including: the New York Times, etc.
eBooks available to the CU community
physical books and other media held by Catholic, in WRLC storage, or by other WRLC schools
- including music scores and recordings
dissertations and theses from Catholic alumni and more from Dissertation Abstracts International

What's different about the new SearchBox?

SearchBox was updated in July 2018 to make your library research easier. This update brings new features to SearchBox, such as

virtual browsing: view other items on the same topic on a virtual shelf
Citation Linker: input the parts of a citation you have and search for the resource in our collection
new resources: selected Open Access resources and WRLC digital collections of special collection and archival material will appear in search results
individual user accounts: see loan periods for items, save and tag records
My Library Account: now integrated with SearchBox

Searching Everything

For various reasons, not every database available to you from the Library's collection will appear in SearchBox results. Here is a short list of databases you will need to search separately:

American Society of Mechanical Engineers Online Journals This link opens in a new window ASME Online Journals: This site provides full text of the 28 Transactions Journals of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, beginning with the year 2000. Also included are the table of contents to the journals from 1996 to the present.
Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window Anthropology Plus provides worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. The index offers coverage of core periodicals in the field in addition to local and lesser-known journals.
Art Index This link opens in a new window Provides citations for international peer-reviewed publications covering Latin American, Canadian, Asian and other non-Western art, contemporary art, new artists, exhibition reviews, and feminist criticism.
ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials This link opens in a new window ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials is the major bibliographic database for journal articles, monographs, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion. More than 600 journals are indexed annually with ATLA Serials containing the full text articles from 60 journals in religion and theology with varying coverage going back more than 50 years. This database is produced by the American Theological Library Association.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, published by the Getty Research Institute, is a comprehensive American guide to the current literature of architecture and design. This database surveys more than 2,500 US and foreign journals. The index covers international, scholarly and popular periodical literature, including publications of professional associations; US state and regional periodicals...
and major serial publications in the architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. In addition, this database also provides nearly 13,000 citation records for architects' obituaries.
Brepolis Latin Complete This link opens in a new window The BLC includes the Library of Latin Texts (Series A&B), the Database of Latin Dictionaries, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, the Aristoteles Latinus Database, the Archive of Celtic Latin Literature and the cross-database Searchtool.
Brepolis Medieval Bibliographies This link opens in a new window Search the International Medieval Bibliography and the Bibliographie de civilisation m?di?vale simultaneously. The International Medieval Bibliography is a citation index to the European Middle Ages (400-1500). Disciplines covered include: Art History, Classics, English Language and Literature, Medieval European Languages and Literatures, History, Archaeology, Theology, Philosophy, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Music, ...
...Theatre and Performance Arts, Rhetoric and Communication Studies. Coverage is 1967 – present. The Bibliographie de civilisation médiévale (BCM) is a bibliography of monographs and select conference proceedings, essay collections, and Festschriften. The BCM covers over 40,000 titles from 1958 to 2005 and focuses on the Central Middle Ages with coverage to expand eventually to the Early and Late Middle Ages.
Dietrich's Index Philosophicus This link opens in a new window A humanities and social sciences database for citations to journal articles, book reviews, and festschriften in philosophy, psychology, theology, religion and other disciplines. Selective coverage of citations from 1983 to the present from the IBZ (Internationale Bibliographie der Zeischriftenliteratur), the IBR (Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen aus allen Gebieten des Wissens)...
...and the IJBF (/Internationale Jahresbibliography der Festschriften/). European emphasis with only 50% of the citations referencing English material.
ETL Elenchus Bibliographicus / International Philosophical Bibliography This link opens in a new window ETL comprehensively covers the fields of Theology and Canon Law from 1997 - present. It consists of issues 2 & 3 of the Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses print version only. Issues 1 and 4 of each volume contain articles, book reviews and chronicles in English, French or German and are available through CU's e-journals going back to 1985.
HeinOnline Law Journal Library This link opens in a new window A comprehensive collection of full-text PDF (or text) images of major law journal articles, including back issues.
International Music Score Library Project This link opens in a new window International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) attempts to create a virtual library containing all public domain musical scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge.
LinkedIn Learning This link opens in a new window The LinkedIn Learning video library is an excellent resource offering more than 7,500 self-paced training classes on a wide range of computer and project management skills for beginning, intermediate, and advanced users. It is free to the Catholic University community. Faculty: Please visit https://libraries.catholic.edu/research-help/linkedin-learning.html for how to use it for your class.
Mergent First Research This link opens in a new window First Research provides industry profiles covering over 900 industry segments. Updated on a quarterly basis First Research industry profiles contain critical analysis, statistics and forecasts.
Nexis Uni (New LexisNexis) This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. It offers an intuitive, engaging research experience on a wide range of devices and provides collaboration tools to make it easier to work on team research projects efficiently while ensuring that individuals stay accountable.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window The database covers musicology, ethnomusicology, theory, analysis, composition, instruments and voice, performance practice and notation, liturgy, dance, aesthetics, criticism, music therapy and education, and iconography. Abstracts are drawn from articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festchriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings and videos, reviews.
RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals This link opens in a new window RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text is a unique collection of primary source periodicals for the study of music and musical life from 1760 to 1966. This product combines RIPM’s Retrospective Index and Online Archive of Music Periodicals, and includes over 260 rare journals, 170 of which are available in full text. The content magnifies its global reach with music periodicals from over twenty countries and spans a period of more than two centuries of musical life in Europe and the Americas.
World Shakespeare Bibliography This link opens in a new window The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online provides annotated entries for books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions and reviews, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials relating to international Shakespeare scholarship. Continual retrospective indexing (three prior years in any given year) will expand the coverage of the database. This version includes more than 74,800 entries.