Transitioning to college research requires better tools, and the library provides many resources that will help students submit better work than can be generated through free web search engines like Google or Bing. The easiest place to start is with the EBSCO Discovery Service, a meta-search engine that searches most of IU East’s databases at once, which can be found on the library’s home page under the section that says “Search EBSCO (Articles)”. This provides the single box searching experience that may be the most familiar to users of Google or other popular search engines. This returns material from academic journals, trade journals, and newspapers. It can be set to give only recently published material, or only vetted academic writings. It does not return specious free web content like blogs or social media postings. If you did research in high school, particularly an Indiana high school which had access to databases through the Inspire program, the EBSCO interface will look familiar because the state subscribes to a few of their products.
Adjacent to that link is one called “Search IUCAT (Books)”. This is IU’s book catalog, and allows you to see what books, ebooks, DVDs, and streaming media IU East has. It also allows you to see what books other IU libraries have, and with a click of the red “Request This” button, have them sent to IU East for your use.
These only scratch the surface of the library’s large list of databases. Other databases include JSTOR (which specializes in older content) or Opposing Viewpoints (which specializes in looking at multiple points of view on contentious topics). You can search by subject for only databases that apply to your research, and the library’s recommendations for the best ones in these categories will lead the list in a section titled “Best Bets”. For neophyte researchers, we offer a brief guide to academic research, as well.
One tool that you may have used, which IU East does not recommend, is Google Scholar. There are several reasons for this, apart from privacy concerns about Google tracking you and building a profile of your interests, purchases, and movements, which they sell to other companies. First, databases like Google and Bing change their results over time, customizing them to conform to information you have previously searched for or clicked on. This is designed as a convenience, and perhaps it is when you want to find movie tickets or order dinner. But for research, it is a stealthy and deceptive way of hiding information from you. True academic scholarship requires engaging with all viewpoints. But with Google, click on one news source several times, and it will stop showing you opposing outlets. This applies to academic searching as well. A nursing student who does one big project on alternative medicine in their first year, can expect to see results tainted by Google’s ‘helpful’ bias toward previous searches for the rest of their college career. Also, they are simply less robust than academic search engines, having been built for ease of use. Using limiters and controlled language is much more difficult and sometimes unavailable in free web searching. The tools on the library’s web site are the best ones to work with in your college career.
Do you have any questions about research? You can Ask Us at iueref@iu.edu or click this button:
