Database Search Techniques

Knowing where to begin a search is one of the most important search strategies that a patron must know. 

1. For Pepperdine University students, faculty and staff, the first place to begin your search is at http://library.pepperdine.edu

The link above will direct you to the Pepperdine University library home page as seen below       2. The next step is to click on the Databases & E-Journals selection at the bottom of the webpage.

  3. Once you have clicked on the Databases & E-Journals link and are at the webpage shown below, the next step if you don't already know the name of the database you wish to explore is to figure out what subject your research question would fall under in order to filter the list of databases by subject and get an idea of which databases would be best to search through. 

  4. It is important to note that every database is different in terms of the type of data that is pulled from it. Certain databases will only pull historical articles while other databases will pull mainly business information with lots of data in the forms of numbers. That is why it is important to understand what subject your research question falls under in order to choose the appropriate database and retrieve information that is suited to your own research question.

Knowing where to start searching will increase your research efficiency by not having to waste time looking in databases that would have no usable information for your topic.