Anthropology - Selecting a Database

Selecting Which Library Databases to Search

Choosing the best database to search is often a challenge. Here are some questions to consider when choosing which databases to search:

What Topics Are Covered?
Is it a specialized database covering a specific subject - e.g. anthropology, literature, education, gender studies? or does it provide more general coverage?

What Kinds of Documents Are Indexed?
• Journals, magazines, books, book chapters, dissertations, images, government documents, statistical data, sounds files?
• Scholarly, popular - or both?

What Time Periods?
1997-present? Or all the way back into the 1800's?

What Is the Overall Scope of the Database?
Some of the libraries' databases (e.g. Academic Search Complete, JSTOR) provide citations from thousands of journals while others cover just a handful of journals (e.g. AnthroSource).

Database Coverage