English Research Guide

What are library databases?

• Library databases are searchable online repositories of information sources.
• Database content varies based on subject, discipline, and information type.
• Library databases are freely accessible to currently enrolled ELAC students only.
• You will be asked login with your LACCD account before a database loads. Review off-campus login directions here.

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:

Best databases for English and ESL courses:

Best databases for Literature courses:

OneSearch

• OneSearch is a mega-search that you can use to search our library's print materials (like books, magazines, and DVDs) 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 out!

Step-by-step handouts:

What is Google?

• Google is a powerful Internet search engine.
• Google searches the web for content posted on the Internet, usually in the form of websites.
• Since anyone post content on the Internet, you'll want to make sure you're using credible websites in your research. (Review the "Evaluating sources" section of this guide to learn how!)

Google Search Tips for Research

Tips covered in the above tutorial include:

• Using quotation marks " " around a phrase to search an exact word order
• Using capital OR to search for synonyms or related terms
• Using the minus sign - to remove a search term
• Using site: to search within a website or top-level domain

Helpful Google Research Tools

1. Google Books: Use Google Books to browse portions of electronic books found on the open web.
2. Google Images: Use Google Images to find images, charts, graphs, and statistics. Don't forget to cite the original source!
3. Google Scholar: Use Google Scholar to find peer-reviewed scholarly articles on the open web. Check our Google Scholar guide to see how to incorporate our library database links!