This document provides guidance on using databases for research. It discusses what databases contain like articles, book chapters, dissertations, and proceedings. It explains why databases are useful for secondary sources, literature reviews, current awareness, and works that are shorter and more focused than books. The document offers tips for searching databases depending on the type of research, such as including keywords when doing literary analysis, historical details when researching history, or theoretical frameworks. It suggests databases to use for different disciplines and advises how to evaluate and select sources.

1. First Year English Workshop
Legacy of the Mediterranean
Library Research, Part II
Professor Shelly Fredman
Librarian Jenna Freedman
October 15, 2013

2. Databases: an Introduction
What
• Articles
• Book chapters
• Dissertations
• Proceedings
What what
• Citations
• Abstracts
• Html full text
• Pdf of article
Why
• Secondary sources
• Literature review
• Current awareness
• Shorter, more focused
works (than books)
• Multiple simultaneous users

3. Literary, critical, or
close reading
• Include name of text or
author in search
• Add terms to explore an
aspect of the text that
interests you
• E.g., characters, themes,
places, etc.
3
Image from ManageWP blog post by Tom Ewer

4. MLA
• Literary criticism
• eLink
• Clues:
• Articles & chapters vs. proceedings &
dissertations
• Your age or younger
• Citations & cited by

5. Historical
• Include words or phrases
important to historical
context
– date-specific (16th or
sixteenth century)
– Era-specific (Elizabethan)
– Geographical (England)
• Do not include text title or
author
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Image from Wikimedia Commons:
Exponate im hauseigenen Museum

6. Historical Abstracts
• Historical period
• Truncation *
• Limits: date, subject, book reviews

7. Theoretical
• Include words or phrases
related to your theorist or
lens
– Select discipline specific
databases (e.g., gender
studies, philosophy,
psychology, etc.)
– Use theorist's name or
philosophy in search term in
interdisciplinary database
– Consider reference sources
• You may or may not include
text title or author
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Public domain image Rorschach1WithMarksCrop
from Wikimedia Commons

8. Find Articles
• Theory
• Facets
• Limits

9. How to choose?
• Author and publisher's perspectives/point of
view.
• Relevance to your research
• Currency of scholarship
• Sources cited by this source (look in the
bibliography)
• Sources citing this source (Google Scholar is
an easy, though imprecise way to check)

10. Remember

11. Your Personal Librarian

12. Feedback form (again!)