They are built for retrieval of information.
They often have a dictionary or glossary of terms. In the library world these are called Controlled vocabularies, The names vary by database: e.g., MeSH in PubMed, Emtree in Embase, Thesaurus in PsycINFO, CINAHL Headings in CINAHL.
| Name | What is it good for | Size |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed (contains MEDLINE) | Biomedical sciences (US Nat'l Lib Med) | 27 M |
| Embase | Biomedical sciences (Elsevier) | 34 M |
| Web of Science | Life sciences, Social sciences (Clarivate) | 35 M |
| PsycINFO | Psychology (ProQuest) | 4.4 M |
| Sociological Abstracts | Sociology (ProQuest) | ?? M |
| CINAHL | Nursing and allied health (EBSCO) | 5.2 M |
| ERIC | Education (ProQuest) | 1.2 M |
Each of the databases in the table above can be found by searching in the search box on the library home page; results will be found to the right of the page in the Database area.
There are a wealth of databases to be found in the Databases link in Popular Links on the Library Homepage.
| Name | What is it? | Tips/Tricks |
| The current mother of all search engines... | Limit by .edu or .gov domains in Advanced Search | |
| GoogleScholar | Google results filtered for academic content. Mostly published articles but also papers and presentations, white papers, etc. |
Settings. Used Advanced Search. Simplify PubMed searches. Find at scholar.google.com |
| Tripdatabase | An Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) search engine. The free version is very useful. You can get some bells and whistles for $40/year. | Try the PICO search. Find at tripdatabase.com |
| SUMsearch | A somewhat idiosyncratic search engine for EBM. | There is no substitute for trying this one...find at sumsearch.org |