Chem 30A

Databases come in many flavors. General databases cover lots of different subject areas and include both general and specialized audience information. Specialty databases focus on more specialized publications in one subject area. You find more specialized information as well as more specialized terms in specialty databases, the "insider lingo," different from the more general-audience publications and terms found in general databases.

Comparing ProQuest Newspapers and CINAHL Plus

• From the library homepage (https://www.cabrillo.edu/library/):
• Click on Articles and Databases
• First, under News click on U.S. Newsstream (a typical collection of newspaper articles)
  • Try searching each of these: "athlete's foot" compared to tinea pedis
• Next, under Health, Medicine & Science, click on CINAHL Plus (a specialized medical database)
  • Try the same searches

New Breed of Database: "Discovery" Tools, like OneSearch

In addition to the usual assortment of subscription databases available from libraries, you will often find a "discovery" tool for searching multiple sources. Our "discovery" tool is called OneSearch, and lets you search - at the same time - most of our online databases, our library catalog, and several open web resources. As with any search tool, it should be used appropriately, and with an understanding of what it does well and what it doesn't.

OneSearch is most effective:

• When you need both books and articles on a topic
• If your topic covers multiple subject areas, e.g. culture-specific medical practices

OneSearch is not so effective:

• If your topic is covered primarily in news sources (our main newspaper databases are not included)
• If you're easily overwhelmed by having too many sources from too many different places
• If the likely databases your information might be in are not included in OneSearch - more common than you think!