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EBSCO Databases Help: Get Started

Help with using Academic Search Complete, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and all of our EBSCOhost Databases.
 

What is EBSCOhost?

EBSCOhost (also known as EBSCO) is a company that runs and operates a variety of Databases (...like a record label, publisher, or television channel) that runs and operates many databases like Academic Search Complete, Communication & Mass Media Complete, and many more.

Norco College Library pays for a subscription to some of these databases. Some are general, while others are subject-specific, such as nursing, communications, history, and literature.

You'll need to log in to access everything available to you.

More Help

Using Advanced Search

  • In EBSCOhost databases, we recommend you search one database at a time. That way, you can search for information in manageable chunks.
  • If your results are too high, try adding more keywords, then limit your choices in the left-hand column. Start by year first, then try other options, such as subject, geographic area, and language. Note that sometimes these will limit your choices too much, and you can eliminate those options and try again.

Other Important Tips:

Less is more. You want a smaller, more accurate selection of articles or books! Try to get less than 60 results per search.

Use the "refine results" in the left-hand column to narrow your results.

Use different words or phrases to describe what you're looking for, but keep it simple, and don't be afraid to do multiple searches.

Find a few articles that work, look for new words/phrases to describe what you're looking for, and search again using those new phrases or words.

Gather citations as you go. If you think you might use an article or some other information, save the citation in either Word or Google Docs for later use! All of our databases have a cite feature on each item's page.

If you need more assistance, Ask us.

We're happy to help!