T
Jump to contentGrinnell College Libraries Grinnell Logo

Return to the Guide to Academic Research

 

 

Picking the best databases to research your topic

 

Hide/show this dialogue

Hannah hopes for help

Hannah: I need 3 articles for my paper in Art History.

David: That’s not too many.

Hannah: Yeah, but I’m not an Art major, so I don’t know which of these 200 databases I need to search to find them. I tried Academic Search Premier, but I didn’t find anything that fit my topic.

David: Did you try looking at the A section of the A to Z list? Maybe there’s a good database that starts with the word Art?

Hannah: Yeah, there was one, but it wasn’t focused on the right period for my topic.

David: If only they had a list of all the databases you’d need to know if you were a major in that subject…

 

 

 

Guess what? There are lists like that, and other ways of narrowing down the long list of databases to the 2 or 3 good ones you need for a specific question.

 

Here are three ways to find the right database for your topic:

 

 

 

 

 

Libstaff Log-In