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Licensed Vocational Nursing (LVN): Databases

General guide for LVN program.

What is a Scholarly Resource?

medical journal iconScholarly resources have the following characteristics:

  1. Written by experts - look for credentials or affiliations.
  2. Written for other experts - Each scholarly work is a voice in an ongoing conversation to which you will add your voice when you write a paper.
  3. They use scholarly language with technical, discipline specific vocabulary.
  4. They provide verifiable and reliable evidence for claims. The reader can verify information. Look for citations!
  5. They may be peer reviewed. Many journals go through an editorial process where other experts review and assess the information.

Finding Scholarly Articles in Library Databases

How to Search a Database

When doing research for a paper, you will get your best results by using good search techniques. We are all used to using Google to find things easily, but Google is not the best tool for the first steps of college-level research. It's much more efficient and productive to use library databases, and to learn a few good skills so that when you do use Google, you can use it effectively.


First, let's learn more about searching for scholarly articles:


Learn to use keywords to search well:


As you search, think about:

  • Do you need to broaden your search out, or narrow it down to a tighter focus?
  • As you search, you'll see synonyms or similar terms that may be useful. Write them down and try them out.
  • Try different combinations of words. Good research involves many searches, not just one.
  • If you are only getting a few results in a search, check your spelling. Databases can't correct for misspellings.

The library has many videos on research skills and using particular databases. See more videos about research skills here!

Recommended Databases

The library subscribes to a wide range of databases that allow you to search for specific information. Below you will find the complete database list, A-Z Databases, as well as databases recommended for medical and health research. 

Medical Research Strategies

Research iconWhen conducting research, especially in a database, it is helpful to know the medical or scientific term for what you are researching. For example you may want to research why is the rate of heart disease so high in older women. How do you know that heart disease is the correct term to use? Below are two approaches to finding the most useful terms to use.

  1. Searching Wikipedia or another reference source will supply you with the correct terms. From Wikipedia you can find that heart disease is also called cardiovascular disease. You can also learn the more specific terms such as coronary artery disease or myocardial infarction (commonly called heart attack). You can then use these as search terms in the database.
  2. Use the database to help you. When searching for “heart disease and women” looked at the records of several articles. There are a few things to notice:
  • MeSH Terms or Medical Subject Headings are a standardized way of describing and indexing journal articles in the medical field. These terms help researchers label and find the most relevant research when searching databases.

MeSH Terms

  • Subject Terms are also a great way to find other or more correct ways of describing what you are looking for. They help index articles which helps researchers more easily find what they need.
  • Author Supplied Keywords are supplied by the author of the article to help researchers find their articles.

Subject terms, author-supplied keywords