Why learn to search databases?

It's not hard to get on a computer and find material on any topic using Google. It's also not hard for anyone to create a website and fill it with words and images that are not true, accurate or real.

That's why your instructors include in their syllabi and assignments descriptions of the types of sources they require for your papers. Your assignment may require a number of recently published articles written by experts on the subjects they are writing about.

Finding articles in databases that meet your instructor's requirements takes more skill and evaluation, not to mention time, than searching on Google.

Through the Cañada College Library, you have access to dozens of databases, each one containing hundreds of thousands of articles from journals, newspapers and magazines as well as videos. The library's guide to databases describes different databases and which subjects they specialize in.

Outcomes

In this module, you will learn:

the difference between popular and scholarly (or peer-reviewed, or academic; the three terms are interchangeable) articles
why your instructors often require recent scholarly articles for your papers
how to choose databases
how to limit your searches to reduce results from thousands to a number you can use

Know your college email address

Know your OneLogin - the part of your college email address that includes your surname and first initial, often - and your college email address that ends in @my.smccd.edu before you start you can log in to databases and email articles to yourself.

***Use your college email address in databases.***

This chart shows an example of a student OneLogin and a student email address.
OneLogin	college email address
garciar (your email address before @my.smccd.edu)	garciar@my.smccd.edu

Quiz!

A short stress-free quiz at the end of this module tests your new-found knowledge.