| Library Database | Website |
|---|---|
| Often contain information from professionals and/or experts in their field of research (ie. scholarly journals) | Can be written by anyone |
| Information and findings are often fact-checked by other professionals (ie. peer-reviewed) | Not always checked for accuracy and may contain the author's bias |
| Contain complete citation information (and may create the citation for you!) | Often missing vital citation information |
| Your status as a student grants you access to library databases with no additional cost to you | Information on websites is not always free |
| Databases are updated frequently as new material is published and the date of publication is easily visible | May not be up-to-date or may not indicate when the page was updated |
As a Brescia University student, you have access to thousands of scholarly, academic journal articles and electronic books. We also offer newspapers, encyclopedias, and helpful technology and research related tutorials that are all accessible online and through our A-Z Database page.
On the A-Z Database page, you will find a series of drop-down boxes like the image above. These boxes will help you filter the databases according to your need.
If you are researching for a specific class, such as social work or psychology, you can make that selection from the 'All Subjects' menu.
If you need a specific type of database, such as a biography or case study, you can make that selection from the 'All Database Types' menu.
If your assignment calls for research from a specific vendor, such as Ebsco or JSTOR, you can make that selection from the 'All Vendors/Providers' menu.
The search box at the end is to search only for certain databases, not a research topic. For instance, your professor mentioned a database to use in class but you can only remember part of the name - behavior. Searching for 'behavior' in the search box will bring up all databases that contain the word behavior in the title and/or description. It will not search the databases for articles containing that term.
Once you select a database and enter any off-campus credentials, you will then enter your search terms to find the appropriate resources.
Tip #1 You've searched for the perfect article and finally found it! You want to save it to be able to access it later so you copy and paste the url and send it to yourself. The next day when you access that saved link you receive an error message. What went wrong??
Always copy and paste the permalink - not the page url
The permalink is usually found on the right side of the page once you have clicked on an article (see image to the right)
.
Permalink stands for Permanent Link. You will be able to access the article regardless of any possible url changes that may occur.
Tip #2 When you need similar articles within an Ebsco database, you have the option of searching for similar results. When you have selected an article, there is an option on the left side of the page for finding similar results (see image below). Simply click this option to populate a new search that matches the criteria from the original article.
