The library's databases are structured so you can access all the items stored inside. Like a filing cabinet, fields are used to describe and organize library resources into files called records.

When a search term is entered, the computer finds records that contain the search term in one or more of the fields.

All databases share this structure but vary in appearance, the types and formats of the content stored inside, and the terminology used to organize that content.

1. General, multi-subject databases cover a broad range of subjects and index thousands of resources in multiple formatsIn general, there are two types of databases:
2. Subject-specific or format-specific databases cover a particular subject or discipline and/or index a particular type of publication, such as streaming videos, e-books, or newspapers

• Gives you free access to scholarly, peer-reviewed research that costs money to get in full-text, such as academic journals, market research reports, and ebooks.
• Has helpful tools like folders to save results, citation generators, and mind maps.
• Finds content in subject or format-specific databases, for example Nursing Reference Center for nursing sources or Credo Reference for dictionaries and encyclopedias.
• Many options to narrow and improve relevancy of results by filtering for subject, year, type of publication, author, and more

• Finds freely available information throughout the internet
• Can be helpful for locating news and current events, general information, and official government sources like statistics.
• Content is mainly commercial (for-profit) and/or opinion-based
• Access to scholarly research require payment (aka paywalls) to access in full-text.
• Results contain a lot of advertising and sponsored content, aka clickbait.
• Few options to narrow and improve relevancy of results.

• Provides free subscription-based content that is scholarly and suitable for college assignments.

• Lacks the reliability and authority needed for college assignments.

People;

Cosmopolitan; 

National Geographic;

Vogue;

Sports Illustrated

• Intended to entertain or persuade, usually with an agenda to sell products or services.
• Brief articles with short, catchy titles that have no obvious structure and do not contain original research, but sometimes contain summaries and popular representations of research, making it accessible to a non-specialized audience.
• Many photographs, illustrations, and colourful graphic layouts used for aesthetic purposes to draw in and influence readers.
• Attractive glossy format with lots of colour.
• Simple language in order to meet a very basic level of education.
• Extensive advertising designed to appeal to the general public or a specific demographic.
• Published on a weekly or monthly basis.

Calgary Herald;

The Global and Mail;

Time;

MacLean's

• Contains information on local, regional, national, or international events; editorialsand opinion columns; and entertainment reviews.
• Historical newspapers can provide unique eyewitness accounts of events.
• Useful for acquiring time-sensitive information as content is extremely current.
• Provides mainly objective information, but does not contain scholarly analysis.
• Written for a general audience with plain, simple language.
• Original source of the information is often unclear, as articles have no in-text citations or reference lists.
• Published daily, weekly, or monthly.

Advertising Age;

Harvard Business Review;

Nutrition Health Review

• Provides news and information to professionals in a particular industry.
• Articles do not contain original research, but focus on applying research to practical and real-life situations (i.e. discussing how teachers can apply the latest research on learning theories to their teaching).
• Assumes the reader is an educated and experienced professional, so specialized vocabulary and technical jargon is often used.
• Funded through both subscriptions and advertising, with extensive advertising aimed at people in the field or industry.
• Photographs and illustrations used to support content of the article and also for aesthetic purposes to draw in readers.
• Published on an annual, biannual, or quarterly basis.

Nursing Philosophy;

Journal of Business Communication

• Most articles are evaluated before publication through the peer review process.
• Articles are written by scholars or researchers in the field, discipline, or specialty and contain advanced, technical language appropriate to the discipline.
• Illustrations, graphs, charts and photographs are used only to support the content of articles.
• Articles are lengthy and have substantial in-text citations with endnotes, footnotes and/or bibliographies.
• Plain appearance with little use of colour and minimal advertising.
• Published on an annual, biannual, or quarterly basis.
• Contains one or more of these terms in the title - Journal, Studies, Applied, Analysis or Quarterly.

1. Author(s) with credentials (e.g. PhD)and/or affiliations(e.g. university professor)
2. A specific focus on contributing new, original research in a narrow area of the subject (often indicated through a long title)
3. Technical and formal language with complex ideas and arguments, an objective tone, and an analytical perspective
4. Lengthy (at least 5 pages of text) with many references, footnotes and/or endnotes
5. Plain appearance with very minimal use of colour, graphics and/or images

• A received date and accepted date, which indicate a peer review process prior to publication
• An abstract on the front page, which summarizes the content of the article
• Structured into sections indicating a research study, with headings such as Introduction, Purpose or Objective; Research Methods or Design; Analysis, Themes or Theoretical Approach; Results or Findings; Discussion or Conclusion

A “keyword” is simply a concrete word or phrase that describes the main concepts in a research question or topic. If you have used an Internet search engine, you are probably familiar with keyword searching.

A keyword search:

• Finds the word wherever it appears in the database
• Is the most flexible and broadest type of search that is best for initial exploration of a research topic or question
• May yield too many results that are not relevant to the research topic or question
• Is useful for when the keyword is form of jargon or a term that is new or otherwise distinctive, such as personal names or brands

NEVER type more than one or two words into a search box. Use Advanced Search for more search boxes to add keywords.

To expand search results, drop the ending of keywords and place an asterisk (*) next to the root of term to find all variations such as the plural and adjectival forms:

youth AND drugs

child AND development AND play

native OR aboriginal

job OR career OR profession

depression NOT economic

crime AND London NOT Ontario

Example 1:

Example 2:

A field is used to “file” a library resource in the database. Fields appear on the database record and vary according to the format of the library resource.

This is an example of a record for an academic journal article. There are fields for the article title, name of the journal (source), author(s), database, and so on. These fields are used to describe and organize the library resource:

A field search:

• Is best for known items, meaning you have some knowledge of specific characteristics such as author, title of article, and so on
• Must have the exact spelling and grammatical structure. For example, most databases format the author field with by last name first followed by the initial of the first name, so a search for “Anne Smith” would not be successful but search for “Smith, A” would be successful
• May narrow results too much, missing other relevant resources

In library databases, subject headings are a type of standardized “tag” used to index and organize resources on the same topic, regardless of the words used in the actual text.

Subject headings are useful because they group under one umbrella term all the synonyms, singular or plural forms, and spelling variants of a given term so you do not have to search for every variation to find all relevant resources.

Also referred to as subject terms or descriptors, subject headings vary depending on the database. A list of subject headings is typically provided within the thesaurus or index, which can be used to begin a subject search.

For example, the Business Source Complete database has a link to its Thesaurus that provides the option to search or browse by keyword:

Another method of subject searching is by opening the database record.
 

Often, the subject headings are hyperlinked. Clicking on one will retrieve all resources that have been indexed under that subject heading:

A subject search:

• Is helpful for when you are seeking information on a general or broad topic
• Can locate sources on a topic that is not explicitly expressed in any of the other fields in a catalogue or database record
• Is useful for finding information about a specific person or place, such as an author (books about Margaret Atwood) or a region (Asia)
• Can assist you in narrowing your research topic, as general subjects are broken down into subtopics; for example “Business – ethics”