Database Searching Tips 

The University of St. Thomas Libraries offer you a wide variety of databases for your research.  Unfortunately, there is not much standardization among them.  Each publisher or "family" of databases has its own way of combining terms, determining subject terms within a database, printing or emailing/downloading results, etc.  All of the databases provide online help, but it is not always easy to find exactly what you need.

Here are some suggestions:

• When you use the Databases & Indexes page, you can select a subject, which will provide you with a list (and descriptions) of useful databases for that subject.  For example, for an English paper, you would choose Literature; to do research in psychology, choose Psychology & Counseling.  In the right-hand column of many of these descriptions will be links to guides for searching the database, both those created by UST library staff and those created by the publisher/vendor.
• The database descriptions will help you decide which database(s) you want to search.  For example, if you need current information on a topic, you want to make sure the database includes current information, and see how frequently it's updated.  If you need older materials, be sure to check how far back the database goes:  many do not go earlier than the 1980s.
• Write out or describe your topic and each concept within it, then think of keywords for each concept. For example, the topic "What is the impact of NAFTA on Mexican income distribution?" might fall into the following categories: 
         --NAFTA, north american free trade agreement, free trade 
         --Mexico, Mexican 
         --Income, income distribution, income gap, wages, salaries

  Thinking of different ways to describe or ask your question will give you more flexibility when  looking for information in a variety of resources.  Databases vary in their use of vocabulary.  Some will assign specific subjects to the topics of articles covered in the database; these subject terms can vary from database to database and from discipline to discipline.  Some full-text databases will let you search all the words of the article, and they will try to find exact matches for your terms.

• Most databases will provide ways to combine terms (using "and" and "or," looking for words as a phrase, or next to each other), doing "wildcard" or "truncation" searches (where a "wildcard" character replaces one or more characters to let you pick up plurals, variations in spelling, etc.)  Check the help pages on the database to see what wildcard characters it uses.
• If you get too much information, you will want to narrow your search.  You can add terms to get more specific (try using "and"), use more specific terms (brazil instead of south america), or limit by date or other options (check the database to see what choices you have.)
• If you don't get enough information, you can broaden your search.  Use "or" to add terms such as synonyms (bodybuilding or weightlifting), or try searching by a broader term (minorities instead of asian-americans.)
• Check the help screens or onscreen prompts of the database to see what options it allows for printing, downloading, or emailing your results.