WHAT CAN I FIND IN A LIBRARY DATABASE?
Library databases are best used for searching for peer-reviewed journal articles. A great database to begin searching is Academic Search Complete.
KEYWORDS
The building block of a library database search is keywords. Keywords are central ideas or terms within your research question or problem. For example, if we were exploring the topic: what are the effects of noise pollution from boating or shipping on marine mammals?, we might extract the following keywords: prime numbers AND probability.
BOOLEAN SEARCH OPERATORS
Once you have your keywords identified (2-3 is a good place to begin), you then need to connect them together in a way the database understands how to search. This is done using the Boolean search operators AND, OR, and NOT. Connecting keywords using these search operators creates a search string. For example: prime numbers AND probability.
ENTER KEYWORDS IN DATABASE SEARCH BOXES
Enter each keyword onto its own search line. If you have an OR string, include the entire string in one search box.
SEARCH LIMITERS
Below the search boxes are limiters that can be set to help filter and narrow your results. To search for scholarly articles, remember to check the scholarly (peer-reviewed) checkbox. Other useful limiter options are the date range. Since you are analyzing contemporary topics, you might consider limiting the date range boxes to the last 5 or 10 years.
USING SEARCH RESULTS
Do not limit your search to just one database. Instead look at a variety of databases both subject specific and interdisciplinary to make sure you are viewing the full scope of literature published on your topic.