My Information Skills

Self-paced tutorials on research and study skills for TAFE SA students

Searching databases

Searching a database is similar to searching Google. Identify your keywords and decide if you want to do a basic search or advanced search. Databases allow you to control which fields you want search, for example:

  • search for keywords anywhere throughout the articles
  • search by subject
  • search only within the abstract
  • search for particular authors
  • search for the title of the publication

For help using specific databases, see these guides.

Watch this video for a demonstration of database searching: