Database tip sheets
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Using Databases at OaktonLearn how to get the most out of commonly searched Oakton Library databases.
Background information
When you start a research project, you need to get a sense of what’s already been said (or written) about your topic. We call this kind of overview background information.
Examples of background information that can help kickstart your research include basic facts, key words, history, leading issues, descriptions, and concepts.
Think of background information as a research building block or foundation. Background information can help you locate suitable keywords for searching databases and identify more specific areas of your topic that you may want to research further.
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Credo Reference - All Subjects Search This link opens in a new windowContains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles.
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Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowThis database is useful for both background information and articles! Explore contemporary social issues with reference book titles, pro and con viewpoint articles, and a variety of periodicals, podcasts, reviewed Web links, images, statistical tables, charts, and graphs.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowEach issue examines a single "hot" topic with comments from experts, lawmakers and citizens on all sides of every issue. Includes charts, graphs and sidebar articles -- plus a pro-con feature, a chronology, lengthy bibliographies and a list of contacts.
Subject-focused article databases
You will notice that the search terminology used in these subject-focused databases is more specialized than that used in the multi-disciplinary databases.
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ERIC Education Resources EBSCO This link opens in a new windowERIC, the Education Resource Information Center, provides access to education journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, dissertations & theses, and books. ERIC is a key resource for Professor Bustamante's EGL 102 class.
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SocINDEX Full Text EBSCO This link opens in a new windowProvides more than 860 full-text titles including core sociology peer-reviewed journals.
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Education Professional Development EBSCO This link opens in a new windowProvides specialized collection of information for professional educators, librarians, and education researchers on pedagogical theory and practice.
Individual publications
Titles available through Oakton Library
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Chronicle of Higher Education This link opens in a new windowIncludes college and university news, information, and announcements from September 1989 to present.
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Community College Journal of Research and Practice This link opens in a new windowResearch papers in the fields of community college education and the behavioral sciences.
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Community College Review (SAGE Journals) This link opens in a new windowScholarly, peer-reviewed research and commentary on community colleges.
Non-Library online publication
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Inside Higher EdThe online publication Inside Higher Ed provides news, analysis and solutions for the higher education community. Some of the content is free.
Multi-disciplinary databases
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Academic Search Ultimate EBSCO This link opens in a new window
Provides a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with around 10,000 full-text periodicals - of which more than 9,000 are peer-reviewed journals.
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Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowThis database is useful for both background information and articles! Explore contemporary social issues with reference book titles, pro and con viewpoint articles, and a variety of periodicals, podcasts, reviewed Web links, images, statistical tables, charts, and graphs.
Need more options? We have you covered!
Look through this Oakton Library article database list to see if there are other resources that meet your research needs. Ask a Librarian for help with database section and search strategies.-
ArticlesFind articles about any subject in research journals, newspapers, and magazines.
Organizations & government websites
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Community College Research Center (CCRC)As a leader in community college research and reform, CCRC produces reports for practitioners and policymakers seeking to improve student outcomes.
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USA.govUSA.gov is the official portal to United States federal government information and services.
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Complete College AmericaComplete College America (CCA) is a national advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing institutional performance gaps.
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Achieving the DreamAchieving the Dream is a national initiative to improve community college student success outcomes - particularly for those students who traditionally face the most significant barriers to success.