One of the best places to start most research is on the library's home page (click Grasselli Library at the top of this page). The "Quick Search" box will search across journal articles, print and ebooks, videos, images, etc. Once you've started searching, use the filters in databases like EbscoHost to change dates, material types, etc. For even more search options, use the Advanced Search once in EbscoHost or other databases to focus your results.
Search alerts can save your time once you've established the best terms for your research by sending new publications directly to your email. Set up multiple alerts to cover different combinations of search terms. This will keep you updated on newly added articles without having to return to the same databases through out a project.
If you find an article or book but can't get the full text, you can order it through Interlibrary Loan. Articles or ebook chapters will be sent electronically, and print books will be delivered to the library Help Desk to be picked up.
1. Brainstorm keywords that are associated with your topic/project. Identify key concepts and terms, and think of related words and synonyms that you might also search. Gather background information about the topic you are working with, and the types of work they do. Think about broader terms that encompass your main ideas, as well as more narrow related terms that could be generalized to your project.
2. Try some searching, and evaluate the results. Are you finding too much or too little? Consider whether you need to broaden or narrow your topic to get better results. Finding good results? Check the subject terms used in your best sources, and then use those to find additional sources.
3. Use citations/references listed by relevant articles to find related articles. Google Scholar can be used to find articles citing one you already have (search for your article then click "cited by" under the result). This gives you articles that are more recent than the one you searched.
This video shows how to create an alert in any Ebsco databases (look for the 
symbol). There are also print guides to creating Ebsco Alerts (either Search Alerts or Journal Alerts).
This video shows how to create email alerts in Google Scholar. Be sure to set your "library links" settings to search John Carroll University and/or OhioLINK. Google also provides a detailed print guide.