Locating Immigration Information

How to get to the databases:
 
1) Go the library's home page (http://www.wiu.edu/library). Next, click on the Online Databases link: This is an image of the "Online Databases" link.
 
2) Then, click on the "Alphabetical Listing" link:  This is an image of the "Alphabetical Listing" link.
 
3) Now, select the database you want to use. We will start with Academic Search Elite. Note that if you want to access this database off the campus network, you will need to enter WIU's library ID number, 21711. Otherwise, getting to the database should be transparent.

This is an image of the "Academic Search Elite" link.
 
 

For the first search lets try the following: You can click on the image to run the search.

This is an image of a keyword / default settings search. The terms are "immigration, united states, (policy or law)
 
We get 2,800 plus hits--too many. If you click on the Refine Search tab This is an image of the "refine search" tab., you can limit the number of results.
 
One way to limit the search is to enable the Full Text, option by clicking in the box. This is an image of the "full text" option. If you click on this image, it will run a search, limiting the results to full text.  This will limit your results to only those articles that are full text.
 
You can further limit the search by date as below:

This is an image of the date limiter option. The dates are January 2001 to July 2004. The image is clickable.
 
 
By demanding that certain words appear in the title, we can narrow the search still further. Below, we ask that the words (or their variants)  "policy or law" appear somewhere in the title.
 

This is an image of a search that is limited by placing certain words in the title. It is clickable.
 
 
Let's look at another database, Infotrac. Go back to the alphabetical list of databases.
 
Click on Infotrac. This is an image of the Infotrack link. It is clickable.
 
 

 Type in your search terms, "United States" and "immigration." You do not need to type in "and." Also, click the "full text" box.

 
 

 You get a good many results. Note the first one has 2,600 items. But it allows you narrow by subdivison. Click on this button.

 This shows the first level of the "narrow by subdivison" option. The top option is United States Immigration and Naturalization Service--with 2600+ articles. This image is not clickable.
 
 

 Now you can further narrow the search by clicking on of the buttons below. Click on the "cases" button.

This is an image of the Infotrac "narrow by subdivison" menu. It shows a number of choices of narrowed searches. For example, "immigration cases." This image is clickable.
 
 
 
 You might also try looking at the United States Citizenship and Immigration home page: http://uscis.gov/graphics/
 
 The Office of Immigration Statistics: http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/ybpage.htm