SUNY Empire Library News & Alerts

Subject Guides vs. OneSearch

Searching in OneSearch seems like a great idea; why wouldn't you want to search most of the library's article databases at once? The answer to that depends on your experience and confidence using strategic search methods and tricks to weed out unrelated results. Because OneSearch is looking for your keywords in databases across a variety of disciplines, your keywords and the ways they are combined must be very precise. For example, if you are looking for articles on climate change and the environment, you need to use specific terminology and Boolean search techniques to zero in on relevant results. Otherwise, you might get articles on hospital environments, business climate, change management, and so on. To do the search above effectively, you might be better served by using a search combination such as:

"climate change" AND "aquatic ecosystems"

Or, you could use the databases that are dedicated to your topic. How do you find these databases? Use the subject guides. Subject guides are curated by librarians who include only the best resources for searching in each specific subject area. If you are researching women and the right to vote, you want to try the databases listed in the Gender & Women's Studies guide. If you are searching for human development theories, you want to try the databases listed on the Psychology & Sociology guide and possibly also the Education or the Adult Education & Development guide. Many topics have crossover with other subject areas and it is good to try both related subject guides when that is the case.

How to find and use the Subject Guides:

Go to the library homepage, and select "Subject Guides" in the left column below OneSearch.

Note: there are also guides for specific courses as well as guides on special interest topics for you to explore.

From the list of subjects, select the one most closely related to your topic or course.

When you have selected a guide, you will see a list of article databases. They might be listed under the heading "Searching for your topic? Use databases" or as "Search Tools" or "Information Sources" depending on your subject guide.

Look at the title and description of each database and select one that sounds like it might work well for your topic. Your SUNY Empire login will give you access to the database.

Once you are logged in, you should see a place to search. You can search for your topic using that simple search box or the advanced search, usually linked beside or below the simple search.

If you have difficulty finding sources on your topic using these steps, you can always  Ask a Librarian!