Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

HSSE Library Launches Monthly “Featured Databases” Tutorials

September 26th, 2019

Among the many resource and services Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies (PULSIS) offers student and faculty researchers are more than 600 databases. For years, staff in the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics have offered the “Database of the Month” feature to help business researchers navigate these rich resources.

To help humanities’ and social sciences’ researchers, on Sept. 26, staff in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education (HSSE) Library launched a similar series, the HSSE Library “Featured Databases” tutorials. This ongoing series will cover a wide array of disciplines.

According to Library Assistant Ann O’Donnell, the series will post on the fourth Thursday of every month (with the exception of December and May). Each series installment is a new video tutorial that provides a brief introduction to the basic features of one of the PULSIS specialized subscription databases.

The first featured database is ProQuest Research Library, which provides one-stop access to more than 4,000 periodicals.

“ProQuest Research Library is one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer,” O’Donnell explained. “Users can search in a highly respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, and magazines that cover more than 150 academic disciplines,” she added.

O’Donnell said the goal of these tutorials is to highlight the various resources available through the Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies and to give users additional tools to help them with their research and studies.

“We understand with a collection of more than 600 databases, finding the best resource and understanding how to navigate that resource can be difficult. These tutorials will help patrons with that process,” she noted.

The databases featured every month are selected by faculty in the HSSE Library, but O’Donnell said they are open to suggestions from the faculty in these subject areas.

If you have questions or suggestions for possible databases to feature, contact O’Donnell at hsselib@purdue.edu.