A database is simply a large and organized collection of articles. Most databases at available through the library will primarily contain scholarly and peer reviewed articles. Find a list of databases in the left column of this page.
Some databases look at a large variety of subjects, others focus on one subject area only.
Library databases will try match your search words and organize the results they find, so the success of your search depends on choosing good search terms and knowing how to combine them. See the box below to learn how to communicate with databases.
Our example topic is: Providing treatment options to an elderly patient with prostate cancer in nursing
1. Open the CINAHL database:
2. Type your keywords into the search boxes (each concept gets its own search box). Which search is better?
vs
3. Limit by date and by type of article.
4. Searching tips we will discuss in class: Title search, All text search, adding related keywords, and truncation using *.
