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Have you ever wondered what it means when a librarian or professor says
you need to find an article from a database?
In this tutorial you will learn what this means and
how to search for scholarly information in a library database.
A database can be defined as
"a collection of related data
stored in a computer for search and retrieval by a software interface" (Woitte).
As you conduct research for information,
you can improve your findings by searching multiple databases simultaneously.
When you use the library's database search engine to look for information,
you can think of this like shopping in a mall
where there are a collection of stores,
some of which carry a variety of products,
like clothing, shoes, and housewares
while others only carry specialty items
like greeting-cards, coffee, or pets.
Where you shop will be determined by which products you are
interested in purchasing.
And depending on your topic,
you might find the same information in two locations,
just as you might find the same shirt sold in two different stores.
In other words, shopping in a mall
is a lot like searching in databases.
For example, think of EBSCOhost as the shopping mall
that houses several databases --
some of which carry a variety of inventory items
and some of which carry
only very specific items.
With this in mind, let's begin our search.
Using the Quick Search Box, let's search for the topic HIGHER EDUCATION
While these are pertinent results,
remember, we are only searching in the
Academic Search Premier database via EBSCOhost right now
But if these aren't sufficient results,
you have many more options from which to choose.
Academic Search Premier is one database in EBSCOhost
that provides information on a variety of general topics,
like a department store, but you also
have the opportunity to choose other databases in EBSCOhost
and apply a specific focus to your search.
Just as you would often do when going to the mall,
you have the opportunity to search in a variety of locations in one visit,
without having to perform individual searches,
or make individual trips back and forth to the mall.
If we use the mall analogy and decide to "shop" elsewhere,
we can include other databases,
ones specific to the field of education.
To see what our options are,
click on the CHOOSE DATABASES link.
This screen includes all the databases
available to us in EBSCOhost, like
a directory of shops in a mall.
If you hover over the bubble to the right of the name
you'll see a brief description of what is included
in a particular database.
Keep in mind you only want to select the databases
that are of interest to your topic,
with three or four being a manageable number.
For this search, let's keep ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER,
but add EDUCATION FULL TEXT, ERIC
and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COLLECTION, then click OK.
Notice we return to the opening search screen
with our search terms still listed so
we will have to re-run our search to include the newly selected databases.
Next, click SEARCH.
From here, we can always include additional search terms in the boxes below,
choose one of the options in the SELECT A FIELD box,
REFINE OUR RESULTS by full text,
references available, scholarly/peer reviewed,
and date in this search box,
or many other options
Remember if this still doesn't produce the results you want,
you can always select or
deselect certain databases from your search, try different search terms,
search in databases outside of EBSCOhost, like going to a different shopping mall,
you can watch another library tutorial,
or ask a librarian for help.
So remember, when you think of library databases,
picture a mall, and imagine all
the possibilities that await as you search for the information you need.