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 files are included 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 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.
After you brainstormed and developed your topic, you may now have many words and terms to describe your topic. What you type in the search box in a database is important because your search terms affect the results you will get from the database.
Some terms and words are better than others because they provide more relevant results for your topic. Thus, the way you search is also important.
Your search options include searching by keyword or by subject term in the databases and the library catalog. The table below will help you understand the differences.
| Keywords | Subject Terms |
|---|---|
| Natural language | A set vocabulary known to the databases |
| Search will be broader - you'll get more results | Search will be narrower - you'll get fewer results |
| Can retrieve more unrelated results | Results tend to be more relevant to the topic |
Boolean Operators are words that act as a sort of command for the databases and library catalog. They set the relationship between multiple search terms and either expand or narrow your search.
"AND" is the most commonly used Boolean Operator. You would use AND to combine search terms. It basically tells the database or catalog that you want to find results that contain both words or terms.
Example: mental health AND grief
"OR" is best used in situations where you are looking for results that mention either of the terms or words you're searching. Your search results will have articles that just mention the first term, articles that just mention the second term, and articles that mention both terms. This is best used when different words are used to describe the same thing like in the example provided.
Example: kids OR children
"NOT" is used when you are searching for one term but you don't want to see mentions of another term in your results. The best time to use this Boolean Operator is when you are searching for a broad topic, but don't want to see results with one of the narrower topics or when you are searching for a topic that can be associated with a broad range of topics that would not make sense in your search results. See the examples below.
Examples: mental illness NOT anxiety
Connecticut Yankee NOT civil war (in reference to the book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, which was not related to the American Civil War)
Peer-review (or scholarly articles) refers to articles focusing on a particular subject or topic that are written for an academic publication. These articles are reviewed by peers, or experts in that subject or topic, who check for accuracy and assess the validity in the article. When a peer-review article is published, this means the article has gone through substantial writing, review, and revision to show that the article exhibits the best research and scholarship in that academic field.
No. That's why it's important to know how to search for these journals. Also, be aware that not all articles in peer-reviewed journals are peer reviewed. If the article looks like a book review or an editorial, it is not peer-reviewed, but they will still show up in your search results because they are from peer-reviewed journals. If you're looking at an article and you're not sure, talk to Mr. Torres or a librarian.
Located on the left-hand sidebar on the Search Results page, you'll see an option to check a box that says "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals."
Advanced Search can be accessed by clicking on the "Advanced Search" link under the search box. Under "Search Options" and "Limit your Results," click the "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" checkbox.
To find peer-reviewed articles in Opposing Viewpoints, you have to go to Advanced Search, which is located to the left of the search box at the top of the page. Under "More Options," select the "Peer-Reviewed Journals" checkbox.
EBSCOhost is not a database - it's a database platform with multiple databases. You can save time searching in EBSCOhost by selecting multiple databases to search at the same time. Click on "Choose Databases" above the EBSCOhost search box and you'll get a list where you can select multiple databases.
