Garland Library Online Orientation

Introduction  This portion of the Online orientation is intended to help library users gain the basic knowledge and skills needed in order to effectively search one of Tusculum’s electronic databases.  Information provided in this portion of the orientation will cover basic searching of the EBSCOhost Web database.  Keep in mind that this tutorial is composed of screen shots, and any alerts or related information may not be current. Check the library’s website for current information.

Accessing the Database Begin by left clicking the Journals & Databases link on the library’s homepage

Choose a Location If you are on campus, you will choose the On Campus link. Choose the off campus link if you are searching from a location that is off campus. Off campus searches may require a user name and password, which are available from library staff

Two Ways to Access Now we see three ways to access the library’s databases. First are the buttons for the comprehensive databases (ProQuest, InfoTrac I and EBSCOhost).Second is to look up a specific database using the A-Z listing. Third is by subject. For this tutorial, we are accessing the EBSCOhost Web database. Click on the EBSCOhost Web button to access the database. What is a comprehensive database? These are databases that contain a number of smaller databases on various subjects. Using a comprehensive database, you can search multiple databases simultaneously.

Searching the Database Using the Select/Deselect All check box at the top will either select all or deselect all databases in EBSCOhost Web. If you scroll down, you can choose specific databases. To search multiple databases, click the check box next to the database name. Then, click the Continue button at the top of the page. Or, to search a single database, click the name of the database. For now, let’s select all databases.This is a good method to start a search, especially if your topic crosses disciplines (such as Education and Psychology).

Keyword Search Now we enter our search terms in the box at the top of the page. For this demonstration, a search will be performed using the terms “Social Media.” Note that EBSCOhost Web has an auto- complete feature to help you with spelling and suggest other search terms. This can be helpful when you need alternate terms or to help you focus your keywords.

Looking at Results Notice in the sidebar the headings that correspond to different types of material (Source Type). Here is where you will need to make a decision regarding the types of materials that will meet your needs. Note that e-books are also included, under the Books source type.

Narrowing Your Search Under the Limit To heading on the left, click the box for Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals. Remember that Journals are often considered to be more reliable than magazines— especially when those Journals are peer reviewed. For the purposes of this orientation, we will look specifically at results from scholarly, peer reviewed journals. It is now possible to further limit results. First, we will limit results to full text articles, as abstracts will not be very useful for class assignments. Note that limiting to full text articles removes some of the previous results. Click the check box under the Limit To heading to limit to full-text.

Limiting Results Once you have limited and retrieved your search results, simply select an article and click on its title. Notice this reduces the number of results even further, leaving only the full text, more scholarly results. There are a number of ways to limit, including by date, subject, methodology, etc. These are found under the headings in the left-hand menu. You can also limit your results by adding more keywords to your search terms, such as ‘social media’ and ‘teens.’ Be aware of the different words you could use that have similar meanings. For example, instead of ‘teens’ you could use ‘teenagers,’ ‘young adults,’ or ‘adolescents.’

Viewing Articles Some articles will give you the option to view in PDF format. The advantage to this is that you will get an electronic version of the article as it appeared in print—complete with pictures, illustrations, tables, page numbers, and so on. If you choose to print the PDF version of the article, be sure to use the Print icon in the PDF browser as the ‘File – Print’ procedure will not print a PDF.

Also, you could choose to the article to yourself. Notice you are given the option to include the PDF version of the article, if available. You can also include citation information, though always double check automatically generated citations for accuracy.

Download Finally, you can simply save the article to your computer or a flash drive. Click the ‘Save’ icon in the PDF browser to save a PDF version of the document. PDF files can be read on most devices, which makes it a very handy file format for those who do their research on-the-go. Make sure to back-up your research! Create a folder in your or copy your files to a flash drive. That way if you accidently delete a file or your computer has issues, you can still access your work.

Boolean Search In some cases, a Boolean search may be desirable. In order to perform a simple Boolean search, use connectors such as ‘and.’ For instance, we may want to search for social media and teens, in which case the ‘and’ acts as a Boolean modifier that links the terms together. This can also help narrow your search. Try adding more keywords with Boolean Operators or changing keywords if you are not finding the information you need.

Conclusion  This concludes the research databases portion of the online orientation.  Please continue your orientation by completing the other modules provided.  You can practice the skills covered in this section by going to the library’s homepage at and performing a few searches on your own.