What is a database?
In short, a database is an online searchable collection of information! Libraries buy subscriptions to databases so you can find research and information on a variety of topics. Databases include resources such as: scholarly peer-reviewed articles, newspaper articles, trade publications, book reviews, magazine articles, etc.
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Some databases offer pre-determined subjects or topics that may be the exact topic that you want to learn more about for your informative or persuasive speech. Or, they might use a synonym (a word that means the same).
Other databases may search using keywords that you will enter to do the search.
Searches are built by using connectors, also referred to as boolean search terms. These connectors are usually the words and and or.
AND narrows the search results to those that contain both terms being searched
Example: Persuasive and informative will retrieve only records in the database that contain both these terms
OR will retrieve more results because either term will be retrieved
Example: persuasive or convincing
You can also combine search terms using both "and" and "or"
Example:
(college or university student) and (cost or expense of textbooks)
Hint: Many databases use parentheses to group phrases together. Check "help" on the database
Cecelia Vetter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
