Subscription Database Brochure Reflection

When deciding what database to use when making this brochure I tried to pick the one most used at my current place of work and it overwhelmingly seemed like Academic Search Complete (ASC) was used the most. Dominican University offers a large number of databases for patrons but when a student comes to me seeking assistance with research I usually find myself teaching him/her how to perform a database search through ASC since it is listed on the library home page. Also when considering my audience I felt the brochure would be focused on freshman or beginning University students that may not be aware of how to find helpful research. It is these students that I usually walk through accessing the database. Then I teach them how to use Boolean statements to find the results they need without having one long statement that is to specific for tangible results. 

I chose to use a trifold pamphlet with the idea that it can be given out during freshman orientation to students. This way when they need to start researching for classes they have an idea of how to use the database, that it has articles, some of the broad subject areas it has information for, and that they can come to the library for more help. I also tried to include information about our web reference and online tutorials for students that may be unable to come to the library or uncomfortable with coming to us for help. I do realize that my brochure is somewhat text heavy and this was deliberate. When putting in screen shots for the databases I found that the image was getting to distorted because it needed to be re-sized to fit the thin column width. A bad image seemed less useful then some text about what to do.This pamphlet can serve as another outreach tool for the library to get information about our available resources out there to our students. It also serves our patrons as a beginner guide to our most popular database.