A few days ago, I learned how to use the databases in my university’s library. If you are like me, the only database you know how to use is Google (sad, I know). But, thanks to the librarian and the “Distinguishing Different Types of Articles” tutorial, I learned all about how to navigate the databases for my future research paper.

I had no idea how many databases there are to choose from. Libraries subscribe to thousands of databases that give access to millions of books, articles, studies, magazines, and almost any piece of writing you could think of. There are thousands of databases out there and each one is different. At the SCU library, there are databases that focus on science, psychology, education, law, philosophy; I could go on but basically there is a database for every single subject. Trust me, you won’t have a hard time finding a database that fits your research.

Source: quickmeme.com

After learning all the techniques for the best way to search a specific topic in a database, I decided to try it out for my own research.

I chose to use the database OmniFile because it specializes in topics like education and social science which is exactly what I need for researching about mental health in college students. I began my research by searching the phrase ” depression* AND college* AND student* ” and to my surprise there were 1,631 results! The first source that came up was a scholarly journal titled “Correlates of Depression in First-Year College Students”. This was exactly what I was looking to find.

My goal when I started the process of locating an article was to find something that discussed what could possibly be causing depression and mental health issues in college students. The article I found was a study that identified and ranked the personal, academic, and social correlates of depression in first-year college students. Before I even started researching, I was really interested in what factors could be putting college students at a higher risk for mental illness. This study answered that for me and I was so excited that I found exactly what I was looking for.

One stumbling block I faced though, was that I could not find any information on the authors. Because this was a Canadian article I could not find any information on google. Luckily, I remembered what the tutorial taught me. Because this is a scholarly journal, it means that the authors are all usually professors who conducted a study and are sharing the results. After remembering this, I was able to find out that the authors were all professors at different universities in Québec.

Locating articles is not the easiest thing in the world, but it is very rewarding when you locate exactly what you were looking for. But one tip, have an open mind when looking for sources! You might be surprised at what you find when you are open to sources that weren’t exactly what you were looking for. Good luck!