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Literacy Education: B) Determine relevant databases, etc.

A one-stop-shop for finding journal articles, books and eBooks, web resources and more on literacy education topics!

(B) Determine where to search

The next step is to determine where to search.

To find academic literature on your topic, we advise you to use:

  • GALILEO - our discovery tool which searches across everything Reese Library owns and subscribes to at once
  • Individual or groups of library databases
  • GIL-Find - our library catalog

to run a search on your keywords and/or key phrases from your research topic.

But there may be times where it is acceptable, or even necessary, to find sources outside of academic literature, for example, online videos, credible websites and blogs, and so forth.

This page focuses on using academic library databases to find academic literature. Read the content or watch the video to learn about the benefits of using library databases for your research. 

Why it is important to select relevant databases and sites

Why search using GALILEO and the libraries' databases?

Undertaking a web search, e.g. a Google Search, will throw you into three main areas:

  • Mainly, the "Surface Web"

Often you will find news articles, organizations' websites, blog posts, videos, podcasts, photo streams, public profiles on social media, etc. Some of which may be useful, but not substantial alone for an academic assignment.

  • The "Dark Web" - Illegal or particularly controversial content

Usually, these pages are toward the middle section or later in web search results, but certain keywords may take you there almost immediately.

  • The "Deep Web" - rich content, hidden deep behind paywalls or organizational log-ins

Sometimes, you will find credible, authoritative info like journal articles and reports, but you are prompted to pay for access or be a member of an organization. Welcome to the "Deep Web". 

The Libraries provides you with access to a part of this Deep Web.

This 'part' includes access to millions of academic journal articles, professional journal articles (trade publications), reports, videos, and more found in databases that we subscribe to, or that are free (open access), but are hard to find via a web search unless you know them.

Infographic credit: Smart Cosmos (2017), published on Medium.

"The Dark Web" Infographic of an iceberg over water. See caption for what is written on image.

Note: The infographic reads as follows. Surface Web: Yahoo!, Google, reddit, CNN.com, bing. Deep Web: Academic databases, Medical records, financial records, legal documents, some scientific reports, some government reports, subscription only information, some organization-specific repositories. Dark Web: TOR, political protest, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities. 96% of content is estimated to be from the Deep Web or Dark Web.

Infographic credit: Smart Cosmos (2017), published on Medium.

What are databases and why do you need them for library research?

Watch this video to quickly learn the benefits of using the library databases from your academic institution. 

Augusta University uses GALILEO Discovery Search and its associated suite of research databases, which provides access to millions of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, popular sources, and other resources for research.