Research Guides: Research 101: Library Research Basics: Finding articles, books, and more

Getting ready to search

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:

Try our most popular databases below:

EBSCO This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search across all EBSCO article databases.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Complete list and descriptions of all ELAC's ProQuest database subscriptions. Search all databases simultaneously or select specific databases to search.
Includes these databases: ProQuest Central databases, National and independent newspapers, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, Alt-Watch News, and Historical Los Angeles Times
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Includes core journals in economics, history, political science, and sociology, as well as in other key fields in the humanities and social sciences. This collection also includes over 50 titles in the mathematical and statistical sciences.
Login with your student/faculty portal (SIS) username and password.

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:

OneSearch This link opens in a new window
Advanced search
Search most of the library resources in one place

Finding specific news, magazines, and journals

Has you professor asked you to find articles in a specific newspaper, magazine, and journal? You can use the OneSearch tool to see if we have access to that periodical, and to search within a specific periodical.

Periodicals Search Tutorial: