Welcome! This guide is an introduction to the library's databases that provide you with access to a wealth of information including peer-reviewed journal articles, eBooks, reference works, as well as magazine and newspaper articles.

Why should you use the databases when you have the Internet at your fingertips?

Not everything is on the Internet! 

For example, most scholarly journals are not available on the Internet. You're likely to hit a paywall that stops you from accessing a journal article for free on the Internet. 

No quality control on the Internet

Not all websites have editors or peer-reviewers checking and evaluating the quality of the information posted on the Internet while the library database publications do have editors and peer-reviewers who fact-check, evaluate, review, and edit the works. You may find journals on the Internet that appear to be peer-reviewed, scholarly publications, but might be predatory journals! Predatory journals charge authors to have their articles published even though there is usually no peer-review oversight. The articles can be low quality or even scams despite the convincing titles of the journals. See a list of predatory journals and publishers at Open Access below.

Databases provide more search tools to narrow and refine your search

You can often be overwhelmed by the sheer number of results on the Internet and have difficulty narrowing your search. You can end up wasting your time. The databases allow you to limit your results by type of publication, date, and use keywords to narrow your search.