 As a freshman, Mark did most of the research for his papers using Google. While he usually found lots of sources, he sometimes struggled to find the kinds of high-quality sources his professors wanted him to use. He especially struggled when trying to find free scholarly journal articles. Even when he used Google Scholar instead of a regular Google search, he was often asked to pay for an article. A librarian told him that using hybrid databases might provide him with more access to quality sources. He explained that one good option was to use the Article Plus search on the main page of the library's website. The first few times that Mark tried, he got frustrated. Sometimes he would get very few results, but often he would get so many he would be overwhelmed. However, the librarian gave him some tips he could use to make his database searches more effective. First, the librarian explained that he could limit his search to specific types of sources. In his initial results, Mark got a mix of different types of sources, including scholarly sources like journal articles and popular sources such as news and magazine articles. However, by using the limiters on the left-hand side, he could focus on the specific types of sources that he needed. In addition to source type, he noticed many other different options for narrowing his search. For example, he could limit by date range or by subject. Librarian said that another way to make a search more effective was to be more careful with his search terms. He explained that a single word search is usually not effective because he would get way too many results. However, he should also not enter a complete sentence. Instead, he should select two to four key words that represent his topic. If those words did not work, he could try synonyms or related terms. Another tip was to use quotation marks when searching for phrases. This told the database to find only articles that had his two words right next to each other, which can help significantly limit the number of results. He could also use the advanced search to add additional search terms and combine those search terms in different ways, using the and or not options. Librarian explained the importance of being flexible and patient when searching a database. Rather than expecting his results would be perfect the first time he searched. By using advanced search techniques and trying different combinations of search terms, Mark was soon able to search databases more effectively.