AU Online

Library databases contain scholarly journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, reports, and much more that probably won't be available freely on the Internet. That's because much of the materials needed to do proper research are behind paywalls. The library helps you by giving you access to these materials through databases.

Kinds of Databases

Google Scholar - While not technically a database, Google Scholar offers an easy-to-use interface to search scholarly material on the web. You can integrate your AU credentials as well, so it will show you things available both open access and behind paywalls. Be careful for preprints and illegally published materials, as these may not be the document of record. Similarly, Google Scholar's search algorithm is proprietary, which means searches there are not reproducible for evidence synthesis.

Discovery - A discovery search is a kind of search that search multiple databases at once. This is great if you have a very developed search strategy, but just starting out, it can be overwhelming when you return 1 million+ articles! Another downside to discover searches is that they do not search every database and often favor certain databases over others. Our Discover search is called GALILEO Discover and is the default search on our homepage.

Multidisciplinary - Some databases cover many different discipline areas. These are great alternatives to discovery searching when you are first starting out. You will find articles from many different areas though, so be careful about what is appropriate for your topic and assignment. Examples include Academic Search Complete and Research Library.

Subject Specific - Most databases are subject-specific, which means they cover only one specific subject area or group of subject areas. This means that doing a search in these databases is narrowing your field down tremendously and you will only get results from the subject you are searching. Examples include SOCIndex or Political Science Database.

Publisher Specific - Some databases have only content from a specific publisher and can be multidisciplinary or subject-specific. For example, the database Science Direct only has content from the publisher Elsevier.

Specialized - Some databases have specialized content and can be used to find specific kinds of information. For example, Westlaw has information about legal cases and news stories. 

GALILEO searches across all of the Libraries' databases at once.
Enter a few keywords and/or "key phrases", or search by title or author > Search or hit Enter/Return

Take some time to think -- What are the best keywords to find results for your topic?

Try to keep an open mind -- You may need to change your keywords or key phrases as you pursue your topic.

Get ideas for new keywords by carefully examining the title, abstract, and subject fields in your first results. 

Try these search tips and features:

• Use quotation marks to search for a phrase, e.g.  "feminist art" or "art brut"
• Put each phrase or concept in a different box.
  • For example: Michelangelo in the first box and “Sistine Chapel” in the second will find articles about Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel.
• Set search limits such as scholarly journals, full-text, or document type
• Sort results by date or relevance, especially if requested by your professor 
• Look at suggested subjects to narrow your search
• Use truncation (strateg* will find strategic, strategy, strategies, for example)

Try these database features (not all databases have these):

• Thesaurus or Subject Headings list
• Reference list (readily available)

Found a great article in full-text? You can:

• Use the email feature to send the citation and the article
• Download and save the article
• Print the article
• Generate a permalink or citation (Note: Not all databases have this function, but a lot do)