Kelvin Smith Library
Evaluating database content means describing the literature covered by the database and how the database covers it. In other words, the "what," "when," and "how" of database content. Look for fields of research included, material types covered (articles, books, chapters of books, essays in collections, conference proceedings, etc.) and the publication date range. Consider the level of indexing provided, how detailed abstracts appear, and if full-text is available.
How to Evaluate Content
1. Use the help section to see literature covered, formats included, and time coverage related to indexing, abstracting and full text coverage.
2. Look at several database records. Do a simple broad keyword search (such as searching on "music"), then repeat your search with different pre-search limits related to format. Try limiting to book chapter. You should see a record indicating which book the chapter came from. You will need this information to find the chapter.
3. Broad searches and post-limiting. Do a simple broad keyword search and then try different post-search limits. If a database claims to index materials back to 1890 and you add a post-search limit of 1980 to present, but find the number of results is almost the same, then you know not many materials from that period are indexed. If you applied a post-search limit of Only Full Text and your results are reduced 90%, you'll know full-text coverage is limited.
4. Publication lists. Many databases have detailed lists of publications covered. Browsing these lists lets you estimate indexing coverage, abstracting coverage and full text coverage. These lists often allow you to search by "word in title" which you can use in a non-music database to get a feel for how much music literature is covered.
5. Specialized subsets of a database. Some databases have specialized collections. An image database which only covers the drawings which appear in articles indexed in the database may not be very useful, but a separate collection of reviews which appeared in Variety in a theater database could be very useful.
6. Who created the database? Databases may be the work of national organizations or federal agencies. ERIC is produced by the Department of Education. Some database have a connection to an agency, but may not be produced by them.
How to Evaluate an Interface:
Remember that the content of a database and its user interface are separate things. You'll notice many similarities between the databases provided by a specific vendor (EBSCO or ProQuest) which makes it easy to evaluate the interface for each database they provide. But pay attention to aspects of the database which are specific to the content of that database.
1. Look at the keyword indexes. If you don’t understand any, look at a database record. You can also try simple searches in that index, guessing what it might index and see if you retrieve any records. Examine the records to see what field contained your search term.
2. Look at pre-search limits. These will tell you what material types are covered. If you don't understand one ("technical report"), try a simple keyword search with a pre-search limit of that material type and examine some of the records you retrieved.
3. Look at post-search limits. A database can't do a post-search limit on a features it doesn't contain, such as full text links.
4. Look at the browse indexes. If you don’t understand any, try an abc search to see what they contain. If you still don't understand them, execute a search on something you find in the browse index and look in one of the records retrieved to see where it appears in the record.
5. Is there a thesaurus or similar authorized subject heading list? You should always try the thesaurus to see how easy you find it to use. Thesauri are powerful tools, but can be complex.
6. Are there other special tools such as an index specific to geographical subject headings?
7. Are there special subsets of the database and if so, how are they setup (as keyword or browse index)? These include image databases.
8. Is cited reference searching available? Not every database provides this option, but Humanities International Complete is one example.
9. Is multi-database searching available? Look at the indexes for a couple of databases, and once multi-database searching is turned on, check to see which indexes are lost. Also note if pre-search limits are retained for both databases.
10. Is there a search history function? You should try this out after a couple of simple searches; these can be set up in different ways.