SIRS provides articles from newspapers, magazines, government documents, primary sources, reference sources and selected web sites.

• Select the SIRS database.
• Select the search method by clicking a tab (Quick Search, Advanced Search, Topic Browse, Database Features, Interactive Citizenship)

QUICK SEARCH

• Select Subject Headings or Keyword/Natural Language search.
• Select to have your results listed by relevance (default option) or by date (most recent first).

Subject Headings:  (Subject Headings brings up a list of specific subjects within your search and lists the choice of articles or Internet sites).  Enter your subject or search terms in the box, ex.: enter "capital punishment" and you will see a list of headings like Capital Punishment, Abolition of Capital Punishment, Capital Punishment Statistics, etc.  Check the box near the ones you wish to view and then go to the bottom of the page and click on View Checked Subjects.

Keyword Search:  Use AND, OR, NOT [ex. statistics AND capital punishment]

Natural Language Search:   Enter your search as a sentence [ex: What are the religious concerns of euthanasia]
Search results are displayed with a choice of a "number" of articles from various sources including Internet sites.  Toggle (go back and forth) between the articles and Internet sites as needed by clicking the desired link.

ADVANCED SEARCH - allows you to customize your search to specific fields.

• Use Boolean operators, AND, OR, NOT to combine your search terms.
• Use Proximity Search to find word/s in the article withing 5-15 words of another word/s in full text.
• Use Search Captions for to find a caption within graphic titles, e.g., "India" will find you a "flag of  India."
• Scroll down the list of resulting articles.
• Open an article or Internet site by clicking on the title (colored hyperlink).
• Use the provided icons to assist you with the article.
  
  Email: send full-text articles, summaries, source information, etc to an email account.
  
  Summary: read a brief summary of the article.
  
  Descriptors: view other subject headings that were used in the article.  This may help increase the search phrases and keywords you use during the research process.
  
  Source: View all the pertinent information needed to create your works cited page.

Graphics: View and print only graphics found within your article, e.g., statistics.

Clean Copy for Printing: Prints articles without the SIRS toolbar and graphics.

Use the additional features of SIRS (Topic Browse, Database Features) to find other useful information in SIRS like: Today's News, Historic Documents, Notable People, Country Profiles, Maps of the World, Dictionaries, etc.  Interactive Citizenship provides useful information regarding the structure of the US government and citizenship information.

For additional help and other features, click HELP on the menu located in the top right hand corner.