INFORMATION LITERACY: DATABASE TIPS

3 ways to get to Kendall’s Library subscribed Databases for research:

  Blackboard home page, Kendall College Website, and the LibGuides.

(The following uses EBSCOhost as the sample database but many of the tools are also available in other databases.)

Use general topical terms - think broad and also think very narrow.

Try a different perspective or synonym of the word/phrase you are looking up.  For example: “French Fries” might be too narrow of a term, and you might try “Fast Food” for greater results, or “American cuisine”.

When using a database, you can further refine your results by:

Use these tips to help filter your results:

• Quotation marks” for searching an exact set of words.
• Use AND, OR, and NOT operators to link your search words together.
• Use a -dash before a word to eliminate that from your search.
• A Tilde mark ~ before a term to search synonyms

• Read the Abstract to determine if the article is fitting for your subject topic.
• Save the PDF FULL TEXT into your research folder for referencing throughout your writing process.
• E-Mail the citation and PDF to yourself as a back-up if needed.
• Use the Cite tool and save it to your paper.

USE the tools on the sidebar in databases! 

These are great shortcuts to help you keep your information saved, organized, and formatted.

Copy and paste this into your References page - visit this LibGuide for formatting tips!

• Visit the APA LibGuide for general information about citation and how to do it properly. 
• Use the CITE tool or a free online citation manager. If you are writing a paper, you need to show what sources you used for compiling your information.  You can copy and paste the formatted citation into your last page to compile your bibliography as you go, or use one of these helpful citation tools.
• BIB ME: http://www.bibme.org/  Super easy and intuitive bibliography tool
• Son of Citation Machine and plagiarism checker http://www.citationmachine.net/ 
• Cite This For Me: https://www.citethisforme.com/ Specially for website citation creation. Simply browse to the page you wish to cite and click the button to generate a correctly formatted citation. Then copy-paste the citation into your assignment, or add it to your online bibliography for safe keeping until later. Cite This For Me also comes with a Google Chrome extension.
• Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/  Zotero is the only research tool that automatically senses content in your web browser, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click.