Choosing a database
There are several aspects to the choice of database: eg: subject
area; type of publication indexed by the database.
1. What subject area/s are you interested
in?
You may already be aware of the useful databases for your
subject area, but the databases page has a subject list to help you
or you can check out the Subject
pages.
2. What type of publication do you want to search
for?
The following table lists some publication types and examples of
databases in each category:
| Publication type |
Examples of databases which include this
type of material |
| Books |
eg: Our own library catalogue, Worldcat , COPAC,
British Library OPAC. These are all huge library catalogues so
will include other publications, but are mainly useful as a source
for book searching. |
| Journal articles |
Most databases accessible from York St John provide indexing and
abstracts of journal articles: eg: PsycINFO, Cinahl, International
bibliography of theatre and dance. Most of our databases
are set up to link to the full article when it is available on
subscription.
Academic OneFile, Emerald, PsycArticles are almost entirely full
text (ie: the whole journal article is accessible).
NB: Remember that you use e-journal finder to
link to a known journal title rather than to search for articles on
a subject.
|
| Books, book chapters, journal articles, reports, conference
proceedings ie: a mixture of sources |
eg: SPORTDiscus, MLA, Cinahl, Historical abstracts, PsycINFO,
British education index etc. |
| Newspapers |
Infotrac Custom newspaper database, Times educational
supplement, Times literary supplement |
3. Other considerations
Range of years which the database covers.
Historical databases such as Historical abstracts also include an
option to search by historical period.
Scholarly level-eg: Academic OneFile, PsycINFO
have an option to limit by peer reviewed journal.
Go to Step Five
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