Library databases allow you to use more specific targeted searching.
Although this is a little more effort than just typing words into QuickSearch (or Google Scholar), you can find more relevant high-quality journal articles for your assignment in less time.
Isn't that what you want?
RMIT explains it well:
I got my first uni assignment and my lecturer told me to look in the Library databases for journal articles.
I was like, THE WHAT? But, when I got to the university library, a librarian explained it to me.
She said: First, you have to get your head around academic journals.
These aren't your "dear diary" journals, right?
Academic journals are collections of articles written by experts in an academic discipline. They've usually been reviewed by other academics in the field, who have said that the research is:
This means that if you use them, you'll get better marks than if you use Wikipedia, or a random website you found on Google.
In the past, journals were always printed. Articles were written and collected in journals, which were published at regular intervals. Libraries collected these and filled LOTS of shelves with them.
Then the Internet came along, and changed the way journals were produced. Now, they are more often found online as e-journals.
Online e-journals are organised in library databases. A library database is like a bucket: Each holds a collection of e-journals. Some databases hold HEAPS of journals in them, while others don't have that many.
The University Library subscribes to databases that focus on relevant subjects for RMIT students and researchers.
No single database will have all the information you need, so you need to find out which ones are best for what you're researching. The Library has subject guides that show you which databases are best for your area.
It's so much easier to find information when you know where to look and why!
See the Key databases listed on the Home tab of this guide.
OR access databases from the library homepage
Searching for climate change might find articles that talk about because of the change in her health, she moved to where the climate was more salubrious. If you search for "climate change" (with double quotes) it only searches for the phrase with both words together. (This works just about everywhere, including Google searches)
In most databases, searching for child* is the same as searching for child OR children OR childhood. The asterisk (Shift+8) works in most academic databases.
For example, if your assignment asks about global warming, you might also consider climate change (or vice versa). Consider different forms that academic authors might use.
So, if your assignment asks about global warming and Australia, search for global warming OR climate change as one search, and search for Australia as another separate search.
Most databases have limits that you can apply (year range, English language, type of result e.g. journal articles, conference paper, thesis). Some databases require you to apply this when you do your search, but the EBSCOhost databases allow you to apply these limits to the latest results.
If your assignment covers several aspects or viewpoints, or you are breaking your writing into several paragraphs each with a separate focus, it might be useful to do a separate search for articles for each different aspect, viewpoint, focus.