You can use York’s e-journal portal or Browzine to find individual e-journals, both subscription ones (in library databases) and free, open-access ones. One can browse the e-journal portal by subject or search for the titles of specific journals to find out if they are available full-text.
To find individual books and e-books on your topic, use OneSearch. To find books about relations between Cuba and the United States, try selecting “Subject contains” and then type cuba AND "united states" AND "foreign relations" into the search box.
To find primary sources, i.e., something that was written at the time that you are studying, try adding any of the following terms to your “Subject contains” search:
sources
narratives
diaries
interviews
correspondence
documents
papers
journals
autobiography
speeches
letters
For example:
"united states" AND "foreign relations" AND sources
Hint: If you are looking for books written by a politician, such as a memoir or their thoughts on foreign affairs, try selecting “Author/Creator contains” and then type the name of the politician, such as:
ronald reaganHowever, if you are looking for the official papers of a politician while they were in office, you would select “Author/Creator contains” and then type the name of the office. For example:
"united states" AND president
If you are accessing any of the subscription links above from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your CUNY Login - the same credentials you use for Blackboard and/or CUNYfirst. You can also access the databases through the York VPN - if you have already downloaded the VPN software (GlobalProtect) onto your device, just launch the program on your device. You do not have to download it again if you recently downloaded it:
(Call the I.T. Help Desk, 718-262-5311, for problems/questions about VPN).
Individual e-books are cataloged and are accessible by searching OneSearch. However, the Library also has several e-book collections, where one can also search the contents of e-books.
If you have a library card for your local public library, you can also access some of their databases from home:
