The Regis Library offers access to several different subject databases via the EBSCOhost platform. EBSCO is a database vendor, and they have several tutorials online covering the basic and advanced features found in any EBSCOhost database. Give them a look, and you’ll know all the ins and outs of searching the EBSCOhost databases.
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We all know how the story goes when searching the web using tools like Google and Yahoo. Type in your keywords, hit the search button, and then prepare to sift through hundreds of thousand of results. Google and Yahoo do a fairly good job of relevancy ranking, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could throw out all the garbage before you examine your results. You can achieve this by utilizing the advanced search features of the search engine.
For example, Google allows you to limit your search to a specific domain or range of domains. When conducting academic research, why not limit your search to education websites (.edu). Need to find government reports on poverty? Limit your search to government websites (.gov). Using the advanced search is an great way to narrow your results down to a target universe of relevant websites. With the Web growing exponentially, it makes sense to search only the portions that are meaningful to you.
Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian at Temple University, has written a thought provoking post about the nature of academic research and the strategies students use to answer complex questions. It is worth reiterating that not all answers are simple, and that the complexity of a question has much to do with the context from which it originates. Context has much to do with how we envision a problem or challenge, as well as determining what the best sources are for answering the question. This is certainly true in academics! Take a moment to read the post and consider how the complexity and context of your research questions will impact the resources you use.
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