Library Databases
Library databases do a lot of the hard work of the research process for you. They have been professionally evaluated and selected by your college librarians for their authoritative and reliable content. Library databases contain full-text peer-reviewed and scholarly journals as well as newspapers, professional, trade, and popular magazines. They provide primary source materials, reference sources, statistical resources, and a wealth of other information you can trust.
To find articles:
Go to http://library.tccd.edu
Click on "Find Articles Alphabetical List or By Subject"
The Internet is good for a lot of searches and source types. For example, if you need very current information or news and commentary, Web searching is a good strategy.
Databases are special -- they are collections of information (usually articles from magazines and scholarly sources) made available to subscribers. Databases are very valuable because they contain and maintain specific collections, and are relatively easy to search. We use the Web to access Database collections, but articles accessed are not considered "online" or "web" sources in the same way that a Wikipedia entry is.
https://library.tccd.edu/databases/subjects
You'll also see that we've grouped the databases into subjects near the top of the database page.
Doing an argumentative essay in an entry English course?
Try Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.
Need Law Review articles, cases, or in-depth business information?
Try Lexis-Nexis.
Working on a literature criticism research paper?
Try the Literature Resource Center.
Finding Articles in Periodicals: Select one of the databases from the Find Articles by Subject link on the Find tab of the Library homepage.
Off-Campus Note: If you are using a computer outside the TCC network, you will be redirected to a login page after you select one of the database services. The login page will give you specific instructions on entering your user name and password. If you have problems signing on, contact the library staff for assistance.
Once you find an article you want to use for your assignment, you may read it online, print it, email to your email account or save it to disk. The information is the same for all. Be sure if you are printing, emailing, or saving it to disk, that you check the box to include full text.
Caution: Be careful when emailing a PDF article, because those files can be quite large. Many email/Internet providers have strict limits on the size of messages and attachments, and oversized PDF attachments might be deleted automatically by your email server or exceed your available mailbox space.
Your MyTCC email address follows this format: username@my.tccd.edu
For instance, if yourMyTCC username is marion.librarian25667
then your MyTCC email address is: marion.librarian25667@my.tccd.edu
Once you have selected the database and followed any login instructions, enter your search terms. You can perform a basic or advanced search. The basic search is further divided by keywords or exact phrases. For most searches, basic keyword combinations [Example: privacy and terrorism] are sufficient. If you need to limit your results to "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" journals only, check the box labeled "peer-reviewed." In addition, check the box labeled "full text" (if available) so you will only get articles that include the full text.
Document formats: Once you have completed your search and are viewing the result list, you will notice that many articles are available in different formats.
If the documents are not what you are looking for, click on "Refine Search" and try other terms. Try searching synonyms, using specific phrases for exact searches, or use the Expand Search to locate related words.
Generally, the same principles that apply in our book catalog searches, and the same principles you use in a Web search, apply in databases:
Side Search Strategies
To formulate your database search, think about your topic carefully. Ask yourself the following:
What is the most concise word or words I can use to describe my topic?
Are there any other words that mean the same thing?
Do I need to add any words to my search to make my topic more clear to the computer? For example using the search phrase : "soft drink" and marketing indicates to the database software that you want articles on the marketing of soft drinks. Using the search phrase: "soft drink" and industry indicates to the database software that you want articles on the manufacturing and industrial aspects of soft drinks.
Boolean Operators:
Boolean operators are essentially command words to the database. The words "and," "or," and "not" are boolean operators when used in a database search. Since these three words are common enough to turn up in just about every article in a database, the database software sees these words in a search string as specific commands.
When you want the database to search for a specific phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks: "soft drink" indicates to the database software that you want to retrieve articles about "soft drink"s, not every article containing the word soft and every article containing the word drink.
This link opens in a new windowThe EBSCOHost databases Academic Search Complete and Masterfile Premier are always good places to begin your searching if you don't know where to start. The databases listed in the Multi-Subject category are general databases that are useful for a variety of subjects.
Browse the databases by category to get other ideas of places to search. If you are doing a persuasive/argumentative paper or speech, check out the search tips on the controversial topics tab above. If you are doing literary criticism then check out the tips on the Literature Essays tab above. If you still can't decide or can't find what you want, ask a librarian.
By clicking on a vendor name in the Database Collections area of the library databases page you can search all the Databases provided to the TCC libraries by that specific vendor. For instance:When you click on EBSCOHost, you will retrieve a list of all the EBSCOHost databases to which the TCC Libraries subscribe, you can search the MasterFile Search Premier, the Academic Search Premier and the Business Source Premier at the same time by checking the box next to each title.
Each service is a little different, but once you have used them you will begin to see that the basic idea of keyword searching can be applied almost anywhere.
The simple answer is No, you can't just Google it. The TCC libraries pay for your access to the databases we provide, therefore that information is not available for free on the internet. Our vendors want to make sure that only TCC students access this information, that is why you have to login when you are using an off-campus computer.
For a more complete discussion of this issue, see the Databases vs. Internet tab above.
If the article you locate is not available in full text, click on the Article Linker icon:
Tutorials on using the different TCC library subscription databases can be found on the Database Tutorial Page.