A library database is an electronic catalog, index, and digital warehouse for published materials. These materials most commonly include magazine, newspaper, and journal articles. Often, other items such as books, videos, and audio are included in certain databases as well.
Databases are highly organized and allow students to search for information on a topic by keyword, subject, author, title, and phrase. Many databases at Clovis Community College provide access to full-text content, which means that you will find entire articles, not just summaries or citations of articles.
Databases contain information that is accurate, trusted, and reliable. Articles and other types of resources in databases are written by experts in their field, and the information has been evaluated for accuracy before being published. Databases are able to provide scholarly, credible and peer-reviewed resources for use in class assignments and research projects. With special search filters, databases also help you narrow down your searches to just the information you need with ease.
Keywords are words and phrases you have thought of that describe a topic you would like to research. Keyword searches are typically how you begin your research using library search tools like databases and catalogs. Usually, a basic keyword search will retrieve many search results, as any sources that mention your keyword(s) at least once anywhere in a source's text or its record will be retrieved.
Subjects are very specific terms and phrases assigned to a source by a database or other authoritative group to describe an information source as a whole. When searching by subject, it is very important to use the exact spelling and/or word order of a subject term used by your search tool. Searching by subject is very precise; usually, not many search results will be retrieved, but the sources retrieved should be very relevant to your topic.
Advanced search options in library search tools usually provide subject searching. The challenge is to first find the exact subject terms/phrases to use. You may have to perform several basic keyword searches until you find a good source and take note of the subject terms in the item's record. In this search result page using EBSCOhost, notice the "Subjects" listed for each source as you make your way down the page. It would be beneficial to take note of any subject terms that best describe your search topic and then start a new search using those subjects.
Boolean operators are words used to connect two or more terms within a search. They are commonly "AND," "OR" and "NOT." Here are some tips for using each different connecting word.
AND will make your search smaller. If you are retrieving too many records on your topic, add another search term with the operator AND.
For example: japan AND pottery
OR will make your search bigger. If you are retrieving too few records on your topic, try adding another search term with the operator OR.
For example: (pottery OR clay)
NOT will exclude a word from your search results. If you are retrieving too many records on an unrelated topic, try eliminating a word with the operator NOT.
For example: pottery NOT ceramic
