ELECTRONIC DATABASES DEFINED

What is an Electronic Database?

An Electronic Database is a computer-based collection or listing of information. It can include professional, peer-reviewed journal articles that are organized in a systematic way with searchable elements or fields. This allows the search to be fast and easy.

How do We Search Electronic Databases?

The below sub-sections/tabs provide tools and resources that show you:

"How To" organize your literature searches to access information from available electronic databases using:
- Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) Terms and;
- Boolean Operators

.*** Please Note: As you explore searching the electronic database tabs, please note that becoming proficient at searching requires trial-and-error practice. So, the tabs provide resources/tools, but you should anticipate the need to spend "time" exploring each database to learn their different formats, layout, tools, etc. so that you can develop efficient search strategies and habits ***

For assistance in searching online databases, please refer to the PubMed, CINAHL, and eBooks sections under this tab. There are step-by-step tutorials for searching those databases.

Quick Links to the electronic databases are available on the Home Tab, Electronic Searching Tab, and below.

MEDICAL SUBJECT HEADINGS (MeSH TERMS

What are MeSH terms?

MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings, and is best described in the excerpt from the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s, "Fact Sheet, Medical Subject Headings" (2013a):

"MeSH is the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus. It consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity. MeSH descriptors are arranged in both an alphabetic and a hierarchical structure. At the most general level of the hierarchical structure are very broad headings such as "Anatomy" or "Mental Disorders." More specific headings are found at more narrow levels of the twelve-level hierarchy, such as "Ankle" and "Conduct Disorder." There are 27,149 descriptors in 2014 MeSH. There are also over 218,000 entry terms that assist in finding the most appropriate MeSH Heading, for example, "Vitamin C" is an entry term to "Ascorbic Acid." In addition to these headings, there are more than 219,000 headings called Supplementary Concept Records (formerly Supplementary Chemical Records) within a separate thesaurus"

To understand using MeSH terms to perform literature searches, review the following video tutorials:

Introduction: What is MeSH? (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2014)
MeSH Tree Structures (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2016a)

nks to an external site.)

MeSH Browser: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2015a)
MeSH on Demand: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MeSHonDemand.html
- This tool “identifies MeSH Terms in your text using the NLM Medical Text Indexer... [and] returns a list of MeSH Terms relevant to your text” (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2016b)
- Video tutorial - How To Use "Mesh on Demand": https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/video/mla_2015/mesho demand/ (U.S. Library of Medicine, 2015b)

Electronic Databases

BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Boolean Operators:

Include 3 "connector" words (AND, OR, & NOT) used to either broaden or narrow your search
- Example of "AND": "fur" AND "paws" will give animals that have both fur and paws (i.e., cats, dogs, squirrels)
- Example of "OR": "fur" OR "paws" will give animals that have either fur or paws (i.e., cats, raccoons, cows, deer, goats)
- Example of "NOT": "fur" NOT "paws" will give animals that do not have paws (deer, goats, sheep)
"AND", "OR", & "NOT" are usually capitalized when using in Boolean Operators.
Used to generate more efficient, focused, and exact search results (Alliant Libraries, n.d.)

Review the following short tutorials to provide you with a "how to use" overview of boolean operators:

Boolean Operators - And, Or, & Not (Steward Library, 2014)
Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) (McMasters Libraries, 2016)
Using Boolean Operators (Pfaul Library, 2015)
Boolean Searching Basics (University of Regina, 2011)

The following link provides a cheat sheet guiding you through the process of

using boolean operators:

Boolean Operators: A Cheat Sheet (University of Minnesota, 2016a)
Boolean Operators Chart (Northern Arizona University, 2019)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR SEARCHING ELECTRONIC DATABASES

Below are some additional resources to assist in searching electronic databases

To Search PubMed (PubMed Tutorials)
Building a Search Strategy (GVSU Libraries)
Four Search Strategies for Research (Rivier University)
Quick Tips & Shortcuts for Searching Databases (Modern Librarian Memoirs, 2013)

Library Database vs Google

Which is better, using the Library Database or Google? Watch this video and find out....

This video was created by a previous Librarian. If you need assistance, please email, call or stop by the Library for assistance.

Distance Education Students: Electronic Database Information