5.3: Using Library Databases

Definition: Library Database

A digital collection of organized information and resources, typically including academic journals, books, magazines, newspapers, and other content.

Both academic and public libraries have electronic databases. These are digital collections that the library subscribes to. They are searchable collections that group content together to make it easier to find and access, often grouping it by subject area and/or format. Unlike internet search engines, library databases often focus on providing high-quality resources such as peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly papers, and digital media that is not freely available on the internet.

While public libraries do subscribe to library databases, academic libraries usually have much larger collections of them. The exact databases they have will vary by the educational needs of their students; with the library subscribing to different database collections based on the degree programs at their school. Within the college library, there are generally two ways to search their database collections:

• Discovery Service: Most libraries will have a discovery service, which operates kind of like an internet search engine. This tool is often located on the library's website homepage and allows you to search across most (if not all) of their database collections at one time. This can be a quick way to see what they have, however, it can provide a ton of resources and become too much information to easily sift though. Discovery Services go by many names and will not usually be called "discovery service" on the library homepage. Some common names include: OneSearch, Search, Find Books and Articles, Library Search, Discovery, and Summon.
• Database Search: Libraries will often have web pages or LibGuides (a special type of webpage) that offer lists of their databases. These usually provide information about each specific database including the topics and types of materials it includes. You can use these lists to find a specific database, then open it and search directly within it. There are also some tools that will search a small group of databases, rather than searching everything like a discovery service does. These are often broken up by the vendor that rents out the database, such as EBSCOhost or ProQuest.

Choosing a Database

If you need to do a quick search, perhaps to test a new research topic and see how many resources you can find for it, using a Discovery Service is a great option. It can also be useful if you're searching on a broad topic area.

If you have very specific type of information need or are conducting research in a specialized topic area, then choosing a specific database can be a much more efficient use of your time. For example, if you're doing research into business plans and/or looking up SWOT analyses; you can often find a business database that offers those specific resources. This type of database is often called subject-specific database.

Database Features

In addition to offering high-value resources, databases (and discovery services) often include a number of very helpful features. The image below displays the search results screen from a discovery service called OneSearch. On the left-hand side, you can see a list of filters. Filters are tools that allow you to get rid of undesired results. For instance, you can limit by publication date, availability online, resource type (journal article, book, etc.), and more.

As shown here outlined in red, each resource also has tools allowing you to email it to yourself, get a permanent hyperlink to the source, and even to get citations for it. These citation generators can be very useful, but are not always 100% accurate.

[OneSearch Filters and Tools by Daniel Wilson, licensed CC BY NC 4.0]