Individual Database Access
ProQuest
ProQuest provides access to full-text dissertations, including an Education Database with thousands of online journal articles covering a wide range of subjects.
JSTOR
An archival database providing access to back issues of full-text scholarly journal articles covering a wide range of subjects.
Nexis UNI
Nexis UNI provides access to billions of searchable documents and records from legal, news and business sources.
Research Forensic Library
Florida International University & the Global Forensic and Justice Center have established the online Research Forensic Library
EBSCOHost
Access to ATLAS, ATLA, Academic Search Elite, Business Source Premier, ERIC, MasterFile Premier, Health Source Plus, Medline, Newspaper Search & other online databases.
GALE Database
Literature Criticism and Something About the Author Online
Encyclopedias & Academic Publications
Quick Start Guide to OCU Library Databases
Library Databases v. Google Search
Google is a great tool for a quick search to get some basic information. You can use it to find an organization’s web site, see when a movie is playing, find a recipe, etc. However, Google should not be used in place of the Library Databases for scholarly research:
- Search results differ for each person (results are based on your browsing history, geographic location and Google account information).
- Google gives priority to sites that have the most links from other sites. They are not based on specific subject keywords.
- There are too many results and you cannot sort them.
- The top results are often paid ads sponsored by a company.
- Results are usually not from a scholarly source. Many pages are not from a reliable (academic) source.
- It is possible that you may find a scholarly source (i.e. from Google Scholar), but it is unlikely that you will have free access to it.