From the Libraries homepage, under the QuickSearch search box, click: Databases. We have databases for articles, statistics, video, government documents, and more. One good way to navigate this long list is to click the drop-down menu under Subject at the top of the page, select a subject relevant to your research question, and click Apply. At the top of a list by subject is a Best Bets list, a list of the most important databases for that subject.
There are hundreds of article databases on the databases list. Generally, how you search in an article database, how you cite and save sources, is similar across the databases. Many of the most important subject databases come from two database companies, EBSCO and ProQuest. We subscribe to a few dozen EBSCO databases and a few dozen ProQuest databases. This guide includes below videos for EBSCO and ProQuest, so you can see the similarities and differences between the EBSCO search interface and the ProQuest search interface.
To search for books and e-books, use QuickSearch. There is a guide to QuickSearch, search tips and videos, in the Research Guide for THRIVE Scholars, 1st & 2nd Years.
With a few exceptions, the rules, the logic of setting up an effective search is uniform across the article databases. Most databases default to Advanced Search. Advanced Search provides a better range of search options and better control over your search results than the Basic Search option.
The basics of constructing an advanced search:
- Use "double quotes" to search for a phrase: "book bans"
- * is a wildcard, will search forms of a term: librar* searches library, libraries, librarian, librarians, etc.
The search boxes in advanced search are connected with AND. The more boxes, the more ANDs you use, the more specific your search. All of the search terms have to appear together in a search result.
- "book ban*" and librar* is a more narrow search, finds fewer articles then searching for just "book ban*"
Within a search box, searching terms with OR has the opposite effect. It broadens your search, because any of the terms can appear in a search result:
- "book ban*" or "banned book*" will produce more search results than just "book ban*"
See the tabs for EBSCO videos and for ProQuest videos to see in those two search interfaces how to set up a search, refine it, and cite and save sources.