Communication Studies Research Guide

What are library databases?

• Library databases are searchable online repositories of information.
• Database content varies based on subject, discipline, and information type.
• Library databases are accessible to all currently enrolled ELAC students, 24/7.

Before you begin searching:

• Review your assignment.
  • Are you required to use magazine articles, news articles, scholarly journal articles? Books? eBooks? Websites?
  • Are you required to use a specific database, like EBSCO, ProQuest, or JSTOR?
• Jot down a few keywords.
  • Keywords are the main ideas, themes, topics, or subjects of your research topic.
  • You'll need to use keywords (and not sentences) in the databases.

More on keywords:

Which database(s) should I use?

• This depends on your specific topic (are you researching a historical topic, educational, social issues, current events?) and your information need (do you need scholarly articles, literary criticisms, news articles?).
• Watch the video below to learn how to limit our list of databases by subject and resource type:

Most popular databases for Comm courses:

OneSearch

• OneSearch is a mega-search that you can use to search our library's print catalog and online databases at the same time.
• This can be a good place to start if you want to search multiple databases.
• If you are having trouble finding relevant results in OneSearch, you may want to search an individual database instead.

OneSearch Tutorial:

Try it yourself: