This time of the semester finds many students working on research projects for various classes. Don't forget that the DSLCC Library is here to help! We have a large variety of databases available to you to assist in your research. Read on to learn more!
From the main DSLCC Library page, you can access our databases from the "In This Section" sidebar. If you prefer to search our databases by subject, you may do so here. Or, to view our entire list of databases, click on the red A-Z Database List link. Here, you can see all the databases we have available, as well as a brief description of each. Tip: Academic Search Complete and EBSCOhost are wonderful options to begin your database research!
When beginning your research within a database, make sure that your topic isn't too broad. If it's not narrow enough, you could potentially have thousands of articles to sift through. It helps to limit your search to scholarly or peer reviewed journals to ensure that you have the most credible and relevant information possible.
You can also select any other publication type you may need, such as periodicals, books, and newspapers. It also helps to narrow the date range of your search to the last 5-10 years so that your information is up-to-date.
To help refine your search, you can change the search fields. You can search the entire text, or search subject terms or keywords only. You can also search by author or title.
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) can also be quite helpful! For instance, if you want to research how sustainable fashion can impact the environment, you can search using AND. A search in Academic Search Complete for "sustainable fashion" AND "environment," plus narrowing to scholarly journal articles published in the last ten years, brings up three relevant and useful articles. Using the operator OR would widen your search, and NOT would remove any articles that include that search term.
Once you find an article you'd like to use, you can see if a full text version is readily available. If it isn't, there will also be an option to search other databases for the article you need.
Finally, if you don't find what you're looking for on your first search, keep trying! The information is out there. You may just need to tweak your search terms a little bit, or try a different database. Don't give up!
We know that research projects can sometimes feel quite daunting, so please feel free to ask a librarian for help! Remember: that's what we're here for. ☺
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