Starting your Research

Now you are ready to start researching using your  Keywords/Main Concepts!

 

Books

  • Look up your keywords in an index at the back of a book to quickly go to a topic within the book.

 

Online Databases

  • To find books on your topic use THE COA Library Catalog Links to an external site.which  lists all the books the COA Library and other Peralta Community College District Libraries own.
  • Similarly, you can type your keywords into the searchbox of an online database to quickly identify books or articles on your topic. Online databases allow you to search for different types of information or sources. 
  • Article Databases may include articles from magazines, journals, newspapers, ebooks and streaming videos.
  • The complete list of article databases that the Library subscribes to are listed on the COA Library Webpage (under the Article Databases Links to an external site. link).
  • Databases specialize in certain subjects and media types.  The Library has broken up the list of databases into categories based on the type of information they include.
  • If you have trouble locating information in the databases, you should contact a librarian for assistance.  There is a chat button on the Library webpage Links to an external site. that allows you to chat online with the Reference Librarian. You can also call the Reference Desk at (510)748-2366.

 

Before you choose a particular database for your search, it is helpful to know some fundamentals about searching. How can you use your keywords to best effect?

 

The Magic of Database Searching

  • In a database, each document is described in a record or citation. Each citation consists of a number of individual parts called fields. You can search for the information stored in many of these fields (In Modules 3 and 4 you will see this record and field structure in more detail.)
  • When you search by a field, the computer will "look" only in that field when it looks through all the records in the database. It will try to match your search term.

keyword chart

 

 

 

 

 

For example . . .

  • Author Search looks only in the author field.
  • Title Search looks only in the title field.
  • Subject Search looks only in the subject heading field.
  • Date Search looks only in the date field.

But . . . a Keyword Search matches your search term anywhere in the record. It is the broadest search, and searches all of the fields of a record at the same time.

 

Sample Fields for a Keyword Search: Author, Title, Year, Subject Headings, Abstract or summary of contents

 

 

 

 

 

Also, keyword searching allows you to combine more than one topic in a search, for example, "education and nutrition."