As a student of BGSU, your tuition dollars buy you access to top-notch subscription Research Databases that will enable you to find credible information, such as scholarly articles, more efficiently. By using the Research Databases, you avoid wasted hours of sorting through advertisements and misinformation that often lurk on the web.

Searching the web is like shopping at the Salvation Army where you need to sift through a lot of junk to find a few good treasures. Searching for articles using the Research Databases is more like shopping at the Gap where there is less hunting and better quality.

Described in the chart below are different research scenarios. We have indicated which tool will get you to the information most efficiently.

You are looking for the following information:	Use the Web	Use the Research Databases
A scholarly article written by an expert in your area of study.	-
An article from the New York Times	-	(Lexis-Nexis Academic)
An article from Newsweek	-	(Lexis-Nexis Academic) (Academic Search Complete)
Today's news		-
Older news	-	(Lexis-Nexis Academic) (Newspaper Source) (Academic Search Complete)
A government report	(go to the site of the issuing agency)	(BGSU Libraries Catalog) (WorldCat) (Lexis-Nexis Congressional) (GPO Monthly Catalog) (PAIS)
An annual report for a company	(go directly to company's web site)	(Lexis-Nexis Academic)
A definition of a word	-	(American Heritage Dictionary)
A movie review		-
A biography	-	(American National Biography )
A stock quote		-
Maps		-
Statistical data	-	(STAT-USA) (World Almanac)
A Law Review	-	(Lexis-Nexis Academic)
A scholarly book	-	(NetLibrary)