After you've selected your topic, come up with a research question, and done some background reading, you'll need to create a search strategy to find books and articles in databases.  Database searching is different from searching Google - databases cannot interpret questions and phrases.  It's necessary to build a search strategy to get the best results quickly.

Take your research question and pull out the main concepts.  For the research question, Why does the accuracy of AI matter?, the main concepts are artificial intelligence and accuracy.

Next, list the terms you'll use for searching.  For each main concept, come up with synonyms and related terms, both narrower and broader.  (Hint: your mind map might come in handy here.)  Here are some search terms for the key concepts above.

• AND finds items containing both (or more) terms, narrowing your search. Use AND to combine your main concepts.
  • artificial intelligence AND accuracy AND importance
• OR finds items containing either term, broadening your search. Use OR to combine synonyms or related terms.
  • artificial intelligence OR ChatGPT

Loyola University Libraries has access to hundreds of databases where you can find materials for your research. Here's the full list of Databases available to you as a Loyola student. 

What is a database? 

A database is basically a one-stop shop for a variety of sources. Databases can contain materials like academic journal articles, book reviews, statistics, newspaper articles, magazine articles, etc. Different databases contain different types of materials. 

Databases also differ in how they present information. Some databases give you access to full-text articles, while others give you citations for articles that are hosted elsewhere. 

Remember, you can always Ask a Librarian for help if you can't find relevant articles or need help using a database. 

There are two types of databases to keep in mind.

1. Subject Specific Databases. These databases contain materials in particular subject areas of disciplines, such as History or Psychology. The easiest way to find subject specific databases is to check out the Loyola's Research Guides. 
2. Multidisciplinary Databases. These databases pull together material, often both scholarly sources and popular sources, from a variety of subject areas. Check out the Types of Resources tab of this guide to discover some general or multidisciplinary databases.