research using databases

B Y C R I S T Y M O R A N E M A I L C M O R A N 1 @ M D C . E D U

RESEARCH YOUR TOPIC

RESEARCH—GETTING STARTED

1. Come up with a topic or research question

2. Identify the key words of your topic or question

3. Find background information on your topic –

reference books

4. Search library databases for information on your

topic – start broad and then narrow down

5. Advanced Search tips

6. Evaluate results

7. Read your articles and make notes of things you

want to include in your writing

WHAT ARE LIBRARY DATABASES?

• Where you find and locate articles: scholarly, popular, newspaper, trade magazine, etc.

• Massive collections of research sources

• General and subject-specific collections

• Also include encyclopedias

and dictionaries, e-books,

magazines, scholarly journals, and videos.

• You can access them online

remotely and on-campus.

• You can send them to

yourself via email or save

them to your USB drive or

browse them online.

DATABASES FOR ARTICLES

Go to www.mdc.edu/main/library

Borrower ID is MDC Student ID #

Password: Last 4 Digits of Borrower

ID

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• First, you want to learn about your topic – get the facts!

• Use encyclopedias, dictionaries, and reference sources

• Be able to:• Define your topic and

relevant terms

• Understand why it’s worth writing about

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Once you are familiar with the facts, look up information about:

• Opposing viewpoints

• Current scholarship and research

• Emerging theories

• Statistics and data

Search Tips

• Always use Advanced Search

• Start broad—not too specific

• Add terms if results are too numerous or general

• Results usually organized by date not relevance

USING ADVANCED SEARCH

• Separate topics in different search rows

• Start broad—see what’s out there first, then add terms to refine or limit your search

• Learn your Boolean operators• AND

• OR

• NOT

• Quotation marks• Wild card (asterisk) *

SEARCHING WITH BOOLEAN OPERATORS

• AND – links up your search terms and tells the database to find only articles that contain all the terms you’ve linked • Example: Hemingway AND Wilde will return articles that are each about both Hemingway

and Wilde

• OR – tells the database to find articles that contain any of the terms you’ve lined with OR, not just ones that contain all your terms • Example: Hemingway OR Wilde will return articles about Hemingway and articles about

Wilde though each article will not necessarily be about both

• NOT – excludes articles that contain whichever term you do NOT want • Example: Hemingway NOT movie might help you limit your search so the results that come

back are not those about movie versions of Hemingway’s books

• Quotation marks – search exact phrases rather than individual words in a search row • Example: “English patient” will return results only where the words English and patient appear

together as a phrase

• Wildcard – opens your search to words that share a root or common element without you typing every word out • Example: child* searches for child OR child’s OR children OR childhood

MAXIMIZE YOUR EFFORTS

• Preview your articles – read the abstracts, skim the

indexing for subject headings

• Determine if it is likely to contain information

relevant to your topic

• Read through your articles with a highlighter or note

pad handy

• Check the reference list/ bibliography for interesting

materials

LIBRARY @ NORTH CAMPUS

Days Open Close

Monday-

Thursday

7:30

a.m.

9:00

p.m.

Friday 7:30 a.m.

5:00 p.m.

Saturday 8:00 a.m.

1:00p.m.

Sunday CLOSED

Online—Access on-campus

and off-campus

http://www.mdc.edu/main/

library

Call us (305) 237-1183

Research Guide:

http://libraryguides.mdc.edu/

resources

Building Hours

HELP • Visit the Reference Desk

• Call us at (305) 237-

1183

• Chat with us using Ask a

Librarian—from your

mobile phone or

computer at home, in

the library, or elsewhere

• Sunday to Thursday:

10 a.m. to midnight

• Friday and Saturday:

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.