You can think of OneSearch like Amazon.com. You can find literally almost anything on Amazon and get it almost instantly, right? Items that you can find at Target, Aldo, and even unique collectibles might be on Amazon, making it your one-stop-shop.
Think of OneSearch as your one-stop-shop. it will have a little bit of everything for everyone. Best of all, OneSearch connects to many of the LBCC databases, so you can access mainstays like EBSCO, ProQuest, and JSTOR all from the OneSearch interface. This type of meta search is called a "discovery search" in the world of libraries..
When the "big box" multi-disciplinary databases don't cut it, you go to a specialty shop. Need designer shoes? Check out Aldo, Looking for mid-century modern furnishing? Head to West Elm. Need a first edition or collectible print? You'll need to go to Frank & Sons for those collectibles.
Just as we would go to specialty stores for unique items, we can go to specialty databases for articles and resources related to our subject! Think of the subject-specific databases like these specialty shops. They can have entire collections that don't show up in OneSearch, and might be exactly what you're looking for.
When you don’t know exactly which database to start off your search in, you can always visit a general database. The chances are really good that it will have a few articles on your topic. The chances are really good that it will have a few articles on your topic.
Big general retail stores like Target and Walmart offer a wide variety of products. Think of these general multi-disciplinary databases as your go-to "big box" retail store.
A database is a digital container that holds many journals. And in turn, each of those journals contains many articles. This taxonomy allows you to see that articles feed into journals and journals feed into databases. The result is that you can search for literally thousands of peer-reviewed articles on a certain topic within a single database.
High quality peer-reviewed journals like Nature and the Journal of Applied Psychology can appear across multiple databases. Think about how a pair of shoes can be purchased on eBay, Foot Locker, PayLess Shoes. Multiple databases may have access to one and more of the same journal, and all of its articles.
Conversely, some databases are special in that they only carry one type of journal or article. For instance, there are some databases that specialize in carrying old archival, old, newspaper articles. Other databases specialize in primary sources, biographies, and histories. Other databases curate their own articles and can specialize in pro/con arguments and controversial topics.
Check out this video to learn about academic databases.
