On the previous pages we looked at basic research skills like how to search effectively, establishing credibility without sources, and how and why to cite things properly. Now we will examine the resources available to you at Memorial Library that will assist you in helping your clients find the resources they need.
Memorial Library has hundreds of scholarly databases that can be found in the A-Z Database list on the homepage. It is highly recommended that you take a look at these here to familiarize yourself with what we have available. These databases can be easily sorted by subject in the filter to the top left. This makes it much faster to find the perfect database for the situation.
In this guide we will look at two of our most popular research databases, Google Scholar and Academic Search Complete, to get a feel for how they work. Most databases work very similarly so once you understand how to navigate one, while all of them have unique qualities, they all essentially work in the same way.
After reviewing these and feeling comfortable with their content, you can get the final assessment from the Library Research Specialist and return the finished assessment to them either in person or electronically.
Google Scholar is probably one the most well-known of all the databases we have here at Memorial Library. Many students will have at least some experience navigating it to some extent. Below is a video that demonstrates how Google Scholar works when your both on and off campus, and some tips and tricks to make searching more effective and finding the right resources easier.
Academic Search Complete (ASC) is a comprehensive multi-disciplinary scholarly database with a variety of articles, both from peer-reviewed scholarly journals and magazines and trade publications. ASC is one of the go to databases for getting started in finding resources. This video reviews how to find articles in ASC and what you can do with those articles once they are found. While other databases may be more discipline specific, that is they focus on one subject or discipline, they still function in much the same way. So, learning how to navigate ASC gives one a pretty good understanding on how to navigate most other scholarly databases.
