An e-device (phone, tablet, etc.) is all you need to access all the Campus Library databases available to IU East-affiliated users. No matter where you go, all of our electronic resources are a few clicks away. Learn how easy access can be!
From the library website you can access all of our databases, as well as our book and video catalog, IUCAT, and LibGuides, which are our targeted guides for finding information. Why go to the library website? Many of our resources go through proxy servers, which ensures you don’t have to pay for the materials you access. A single journal article can cost you as much as $40, but accessing through the library site, with your IU East credentials, is free. No need for you to pay, when the Library already pays for subscriptions and licenses to these reliable information resources.
Once you go to the website, you have a number of choices for databases. Here we’ll take a look at some library favorties.
ProQuest
One of our two largest databases, ProQuest indexes material ranging from communications and criminal justice to business and gender studies. It’s easy to select the material you need – ProQuest allows you to sort by date, type of resource, language and other criteria. ProQuest also has an extremely robust search criteria that allows users to narrow down their topics using a series of subject checkboxes, which is probably its most underrated feature. Whatever your topic, ProQuest is an excellent place to start your research. Interestingly, it also collects plenty of material about an unexpected range of topics; turns out there are over 2000 scholarly articles on cat memes!
EBSCO Discovery Service
EBSCO is our other major database portal, indexing articles that ProQuest usually doesn’t. Think of the two databases as complementary research tools, with articles you will find useful in both. However, EBSCO does have certain strengths, especially in nursing, education and English. They share a lot of features in common as well, including a tool to narrow results by date, publication, language and subject. Check them both out! They are both excellent places to begin your research.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Want to see or hear your research? You can! The Library of Congress Digital Collections include a large number of primary source materials that are both fascinating and integral to understanding American history, culture, art, music, politics and business, among many other topics. From the Alan Lomax in Michigan collection, which chronicles the astonishing ethnic diversity present in the Great Lakes region in the 1930s to the Afghanistan Web Archive, which collects and preserves Internet-based material related to the war in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2010, the Library of Congress Digital Collections includes something for almost everybody.
NexisUni
Want to dig deeper into a topic you love? NexisUni is a specialized database which focuses on legal, political and business related material. It includes a full index of virtually every federal and state court decision ever published, business profiles on a number of larger companies, up-to-date news articles from around the world and a specialized case law tracker so you can see the progress of state and federal bills. While it doesn’t include some of the tools that ProQuest and EBSCO share, or the strongly visual look of the Library of Congress, it is an indispensable database for anyone who wants to keep up with current business, social and political events.
PubMed Central
Are you interested in the latest research on COVID-19? PubMed has an entire section dedicated to COVID, as well as a wealth of information on all medical-related topics. A publication of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), which is a division of the National Institute for Health, it currently includes over 7,000,000 articles. Even better, PubMed also includes a User Guide, which explains how all the articles are peer-reviewed and gives you advice on how to use the database to find what you need. It’s a great place for an in-depth look at anything related to health.
If this isn’t enough for you, we have tons more databases! From the environment to literature to differences in public opinion, we have electronic resources and tools for your every need. And if you’re still not quite finding what you’re looking for, Ask Us! We’re always here to help. Just email iueref@iue.edu or click here:
