Choosing the Right Search Engine

Choosing the Right Search Engine and Telling It to Search the Right Databases Text Box: You & Your Research Question(s): what field of study is likely to answer them?

Text Box: "EbscoHost" search engine

Text Box: "JSTOR" search engine Text Box: "LION" search engine

Text Box: "InfoTrack" search engine

Text Box: JSTOR Client Databases Text Box: InfoTrack Client Databases Text Box: LION Client Databases Text Box: Ebsco Client Databases

Text Box: Sources are discipline-indexed, making it easy to focus a search by disciplinary methodology, but no recent articles are available. Excellent for archival sources (e.g., C19 and 20). Text Box: Broad coverage but sources are topic-indexed rather than discipline-indexed, making it far more difficult to focus a search by the kind of methods you want to use. Text Box: American and British journals covering literature in English. (Note: no non-English literature is covered by LION, e.g., French, Italian, German, etc.) Text Box: MLA Bibliography (English and other languages' literatures), Ebsco's is strong in Medicine (MEDLINE), Psychology (PsychInfo), Business, and Communications.

Each database has its own method of organization, its own strengths and weaknesses in coverage, and its own unique search engine. The obvious point is that you cannot get to any of the databases without choosing a search engine first, and if you choose the wrong search engine, you definitely will not find what you are looking for. Even if you choose the right search engine, if you do not tell it to search the right databases, you also will not find what you are looking for. Do the paper periodical stacks look any better to you now?

Or, you could use CentralSearch