Making conscious choices about where you do your research requires an understanding of what types of information are available, as well as what research tools are necessary for locating that information. As we will discover below, peer reviewed scholarly literature is the gold standard for many types of research, but a simple Google search is unlikely to connect you with scholarly literature. The Library Catalog is also a poor place to locate peer reviewed scholarly literature, but is ideal for finding books and films. Six popular research tools are outlined below, along with the content that each indexes.

Navigating Today's Information Landscape

Library Catalogs

Library catalogs allow researchers to search the local print collection at their library.  Typically the catalog is a useful way to find print books, though e-books, microform, films, and special collections are also likely to be included.  The ECU Libraries catalog allows users to search by author, title, journal title, subject, series, ISBN/ISSN, publisher, and call number; by default the catalog will search all these fields at once. 

TIP:  When doing subject searches in the ECU Libraries catalog, you are not searching the full text of the books and other materials indexed by the catalog.  Instead, you are searching though the subject headings each item in the catalog has been assigned.  These subject headings use a "controlled vocabulary" that ensures the same language is used to describe similar topics.  If your subject search is giving you poor results, you may not be using the correct "controlled vocabulary" to describe your topic.  For example, a subject search on "feline" is likely to give you very few results, because books about felines use the controlled vocabulary term "cats."  One you have found an item on your topic, you will see the subject headings that item has been assigned.  You can then click on the subject heading to see every other item in the catalog that has been assigned that same subject heading.

Library Databases

Library databases can take a number of forms and serve a range of purposes, but researchers typically use databases to find articles from magazines, newspapers, and scholalry/peer reviewed journals.  For an overview of databases and their content, ECU Libraries has a brief video tutorial you may find helpful.

TIP: The ECU Libraries Database List groups databases together by subject area, which can be enormously helpful for finding information relevant to your topic.  But ask yourself if your research topic has a multidisciplinary angle and choose your databases accordingly. For example, if you are researching bullying in schools, you may want to do your searching in databases from a number of database categories, such as Education, Sociology, and Child Development & Family Relations.  Think about the whole range of places published research on your topic is likely to appear.

One Search

ECU's One Search is an example of a discovery tool, or discovery service.  Doing a search in One Search allows a research to simultanously the contents of the library catalog and many of the larger article databases.  In other words, ...

So if it contains so much, why not always search in One Search?  For many research topics, One Search is all a researcher may need to find quality information on their topics.  The limiters in One Search allow for a high degree of customization in your search results.  However, as your research advances, you may find the search tools in One Search insufficient for finding the infromatin you need.  Databases such as CINAHL with FullText have their content indexed by One Search, but also contain special search features like "subject heading" searches and far more specialized limiters.  One Search limiters by contrast can be overly broad...

TIP:  One Search indexes the content of a large number of databases and includes "limiters" that allow for powerful and specific searches.  That said, you may find individual databases will contain even more specific limiters.  Also, many (such as the popular nursing database CINAHL w/FullText) include unique subject heading search features and subject thesauri that improve the quality of your keywords.

Google

Google is a terrific tool for locating information across the 30 Trillion webpages it indexes1.  What can you expect to find with a Google search, and what is likely to be excluded?  While Google indexes and connects you to a massive amount of information, it does not necessarily own the content.  Books and journals are typically not free, and so Google is a poor way to find these types of sources.  Still, Google can be useful for gaining a global understanding of an unfamiliar topic, and can connect you to useful sources such as professional organizations and...

TIP: Vanilla Google searches can be made more powerful by taking advantage of a few useful tricks.  For example, you may want to only search a particular domain or website.  Do so by adding "site:" before or after your search terms.  For example:

site:.org orsite:ecu.edu

1http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks

Google Scholar

Google Scholar indexes peer reviewed articles in much the same way that vanilla Google indexes webpages.  Unfortunately, Google Scholar does not own the content of the articles it indexes.  So while a Google Scholar search may yield genuinely useful, high quality results, the full text of the articles may not be available.  Note, though, that there are two major exceptions:

• Content owned by ECUIf the article in your Google Scholar search results is owned by ECU Libraries, you can access it in your Google Scholar results.  Just look for the "Full-Text @ ECU Libraries" link (see the image below.)  You will, however, need to let Google Scholar know you are affiated with ECU.  If you are on campus, this process is automatic.  If you are off-campus, use the "Google Scholar" link on the library home page whenever doing a Google Scholar search.

• Open Access Journal articlesBecause of the high cost of scholarly/peer reviewed journal subscriptions, a number of journal publishers have switched to an open access publishing model.  In addition, many universities have adopted open access mandates, requiring their researchers to make copies of their research freely available in institutional repositories.  East Carolina University maintains an institutional repository called The ScholarShip.

TIP:  The option to do an "advanced search" in Google Scholar only appears after an initial search.  Once you have done a search, look for the downward arrow on the right side of the screen to select "advanced search."  From here you can search for articles by title, author, or publication.