Your first step is to make sure you're connected to the UCLA network.
Many journal articles are "paywalled," meaning you have to have a subscription in order to access them. Luckily, UCLA subscribes to many journals. But you do have to either be on campus or set up your computer so that you're using the UCLA network.
If you're off-campus, you can access the UCLA network <a href="http://www.library.ucla.edu/use/computers-computing-services/connect-campus">like this</a>.
OK, now, real talk: when scholars know what they're looking for, they usually find articles in one of two ways:
1. The easy way (Google Scholar)
2. The hard way (the library catalog)
The easy way is fast, but sometimes it doesn't work or won't give accurate results. The hard way is a little cumbersome, but it's the best way to figure out for sure whether the library has what you need.
[[The easy way->Use Google Scholar to Find an Article]]
[[The hard way->Find your article in the library's catalog]]Let's say we're looking for an article whose citation looks like this:
Stephen J. Whitfield, “Richard Nixon as a Comic Figure,” <cite>American Quarterly</cite> 37, no. 1 (1985): 114–32.
Just search for the article at scholar.google.com, as you would anything on Google.
Happily, the article we're looking for is the first search result.
Just click through to find your article!
Remember, though, this only works if you're <a href="http://www.library.ucla.edu/use/computers-computing-services/connect-campus">connected to the UCLA network</a>. You won't be able to click through and actually get to the article if you aren't connected.
Sometimes, even if something shows up on Google Scholar, you won't be able to get through to the actual article. If that happens, don't give up! It just means you have to [[try the (slightly) harder method.->Find your article in the library's catalog]]
If your Google Scholar search didn't turn up what you were looking for, or if you just like getting straight to the point, you can try your search via the UCLA Library's catalog.
There are various ways to do this, but the fastest way is probably to use the library's Citation Linker, which is located <a href="http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local/cgi/core/citation-linker.cgi">here</a>.
As you can see, the citation linker wants you to enter information about the article you're looking for. Enter as much as you have. For the date, if you don't have month and day, the year is fine by itself.
Referring back to the article citation, we'll enter everything we can. Then click <strong>Continue</strong>.
Stephen J. Whitfield, “Richard Nixon as a Comic Figure,” <cite>American Quarterly</cite> 37, no. 1 (1985): 114–32.
If the library has an electronic copy of the article you want, a result will appear under the heading <strong>Get it online from</strong>. You can go ahead and click on that result.
If the library doesn't have an electronic copy, click on <strong>Request this from the library</strong>. You'll be instructed to fill out some information about yourself, and you should receive a copy of the article via email within a few days!