EAP 109/209

General Purpose Databases

General Purpose databases include a little bit of everything. No matter what your topic is, you'll probably find a few articles in these databases. But because they cover most every subject area, they don't cover any one area very deeply.  These are best for popular sources (newspapers and magazines), interdisciplinary subjects, and getting started.

All Databases

Not finding the subject area you need? There are dozens (and dozens) of databases that focus on just one or two subjects.  You can use these subject-specific databases to really dig deep into the literature of that field.  They will mostly include scholarly journal articles, but some also include scholarly books, dissertations, patents, and more. Check out all of the databases available from McDermott Library.

EDS is a very broad search that hits all kinds of resources in all kinds of disciplines. It can be great for getting started when you want to see what kinds of research exist on a topic or if you're not getting enough results from the specialized databases.

Tips for Searching EDS

• Search with phrases in quotation marks (e.g., "Geneva Convention") to focus your results
• Add your topic keyword(s) with AND to narrow your results
• Use the Source Type filter on the left side to limit to more academic sources 

Founda book or article that you really want to read but we don't have full text access? We can get it through Interlibrary Loan! Use our online request form to let us know what items you need. Articles normally take 2-3 business days while books can take 7-10 business days.