A small group of business students gathered Tuesday evening to learn the ins and outs of research databases.

The Moving Beyond Google for Business Research workshop is offered several times throughout the year in the Kitt Investing and Trading Center at Southern Methodist University’s business library.

Melissa Johnson, the reference and digital services librarian, leads these events aimed at teaching business students how to focus their research using different tools and keywords on many databases.

The three databases focused on in the workshop were Google Scholar, the SMU business library, and EBSCOhost Business Source Complete.

“Everyone needs to learn how to do research because everyone has to do it at some point in time,” Johnson said. “Even though this workshop has the word ‘business’ in it, the skills apply to any subject area. Just replace the word ‘business’ with ‘theology’ or ‘health’ or whatever it may be.”

Students practiced what they learned on these sites at the end of the workshop and shared what they liked and disliked and the various approaches they allow to different research.

SMU student Marcus Ventresca frequents the many lectures and workshops that SMU has to offer.

“My biggest takeaway was learning how to find the information I want more quickly and efficiently,” Ventresca said. “In the future, I will utilize databases like business source complete and where to find SWOT analysis.”