| Source |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Best For: |
| Google |
- Searches everything
- Easy to use
- Access to government resources
- Free
|
- Searches everything, hard to find the "good stuff"
- Not many options to narrow your search
- Algorithm unknown
|
- Finding background information on your research
- Identifying key terms or concepts
|
| PubMED |
- Free database from the U.S. National Library of Medicine
- Very comprehensive
- Free
- Can access library's resources through this platform
|
- Sometimes hard to get to full-text articles
|
- Doing comprehensive searches in the medical field
|
| Main Library Search Box |
- Lots of results
- Can search across disciplines (i.e. pharmacy and psychology)
- Various ways to limit your search
|
- Lots of results can be overwhelming
|
- Interdisciplinary searches
- Very specific searches
|