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Occupational Therapy Assistant

Direct comments to kmentzer@nvcc.edu

Need Help?

 

For individual research help, schedule an appointment to meet with a librarian.

Article Databases: Best Bets

The best way to locate articles is through library databases.  Use your myNOVA username/password for off-campus access.

Additional Databases for OTA Research

Search Tips

Select the most important 2-3 terms related to your topic.  Put the word AND between each new term; this tells the database to look for resources with ALL your terms.

adaptive equipment AND seniors

Use quotation marks ( "  " ) around phrases (two or more words); this tells the database to look for the words in that specific order.

"adaptive equipment" AND seniors

Use an asterisk ( * ) to find multiple endings of one word.  Using assist* as a search term will include results that refer to assist, assists, assisted, assistance, assistant.

assist*

Use MeSH to Build a Better PubMed Query

Periodical Types

Articles are published in periodicals, which is any type of publication published at a regular interval (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Periodical types include magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and scholarly journals which:

  • Provide detailed information about a specific aspect of a topic.
  • Report on events, issues, or scholarly research.
  • Are good sources for current or recent information.

Magazines, journals and newspapers typically do NOT provide a summary or overview of a topic.

More information on finding scholarly, peer-reviewed articles.

Why can't I just use Google?

This video by Yavapai College Library in Prescott, Arizona demonstrates the different types of information found in Google versus library databases. 

Click the  icon located in the bottom right corner to watch the video in fullscreen mode.