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Kenneth J. Shouldice Library Help Me!
How to choose an appropriate database
To choose an appropriate general database, you have two choices,
- General databases, and
- General academic databases
You use a general database to find articles (databases list
articles, catalogs list books) about almost any topic. These articles
are not particularly academic, however. They're a great place to find
information for Freshman and Sophomore papers and speeches, and
information for most classes that are 100 or 200 level, outside your
major. To access general databases, go to the Find Articles and Other
Resources link from the Library's web page, or log in to My.LSSU and
click on the My Library tab. Click on the General category. Choose any
of the Less Academic... databases and start searching. Most
topics should be represented here. If you can't find what you need, try
modifying your search using terms with similar meanings. As an example,
some databases tuck information under the heading "elderly," others put
information of a similar nature under "aged." You have to run a few
searches to see what terminology your database uses. If you need some
help, contact a librarian.
You use a general academic database to find academic material
that crosses into different academic disciplines. An example might be
an article that deals with hospital management. An appropriate article
might be found in a medical database--because a hospital is a medical
facility, or a business database--because a hospital is a business. A
general academic database should provide research or scholarly
informaiton about hospital management that would be listed in both a
business database and a medical database. (If you want to be thorough,
you will need to search in both of those types of databases as well.)
Searching a general academic database is a great way to find materials
you would miss by looking only in subject specific databases.
To choose a subject specific database
Our databases are listed by subject, both on the library's web site and
on the My Library tab. We have tried to organize them so that the
database we think students will find most productive. That means we
list databases that are
- most likely to fit the needs of students in LSSU classes, and
- most likely to have materials that are available on line,
or in our paper collection (top floor of the library, in alphabetical
order by title of the magazine or journal)
Your first step is to determine the best broad subject area of the
information you are seeking. If it's Biology, go to the Biology choices.
If it's Education, click on the Education catagory and look at the
choices there. Again, we organized them so the databases nearest the
top of that category are most likely to provide materials for LSSU
classes, AND to have the material available on-line or in paper in
our library. With that in mind, try the top entries in the subject area
first!
If the recommended databases don't provide results, you can certainly
try some of those that are lower on the list, but also try different
terms. If you find any articles that are somewhat on the appropriate
topic, look at the subject headings. Here's an example of how that can
be successful. In a recent search, a student was looking up information
about "controlled burns." We tried a few databases and found almost
nothing. One article had "controlled burns" in the title, though, and so
we clicked on it. In the subject headings list was "prescribed burns."
When we clicked on that subject heading, we found nearly 300 articles,
many of which were appropriate for his project.
There are other things to consider, when looking for appropriate
databases. If there's any way to make money, or lose money, on your
topic, check the Business databases, and specifically ABI/Inform. Also,
if anybody teaches about your topic, check the education databases. If
you're looking at a topic that happens at a college or university, check
the education databases. If you're seeking information about criminals,
check social science, sociology and psychology databases. If you're in
search of information about fires or fire fighting equipment, check the
Applied Science and Technology database. The list goes on... but the
most important thing is that if you're having problems finding material
on your topic, that you ask a librarian. Either stop by the library,
call the Reference Desk (906-635-9313) or Ask a Librarian.
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