This document provides an overview of literature databases and how to search them effectively. It explains that literature databases contain peer-reviewed scholarly articles selected by experts, while Google contains a wider range but less quality-controlled information. It recommends analyzing topics, using subject headings and Boolean operators to search multiple concepts or limit results. The searching process involves selecting appropriate databases, developing search strategies, and refining searches based on results.

1. Yun Zhang Science Librarian Georgia State University Library

4. Literature databases vs. Google? Literature Databases Google Google Scholar Scholarly vs. non-scholarly Scholarly Mostly non-scholarly Mostly scholarly Content Coverage Human-selected quality information . Journal articles found in the databases are peer-reviewed . Machine-crawled information from websites that web spiders are allowed to go . Includes a lot of foreign language materials. Content Quality Selected quality information . Lacks quality control . Searching Features Human-created subject terms and taxonomy terms used to solve the problems of synonymy and ambiguity. Advanced ways to combine searches (AND/OR/NOT) Truncation Limit by date range Limit by document type Sort or analyze results No standardized vocabulary to facilitate subject search. Basic ways to combine search terms (+ / - /Advanced Search) Searches for variants automatically Limit by date range No way to limit by document type No way to sort or analyze results Documentation of indexing method Yes No