1. Searching Databases

2. What is in the Library? The Online Library has thousands of journal articles and electronic books available for your use. Also available are hundreds of websites, organized by subject or program (your major). You can add these to your Favorites.

3. What is in the databases? The databases organize electronic journals, which are updated frequently. For example, you can read today’s Wall Street Journal articles through ABI/INFORM Complete. Databases can specialize in specific areas, such as the Business Index or Computer Database. You can search for full-text articles, as well as peer-reviewed or refereed articles. These have been reviewed and edited by experts in the field and are more reliable sources.

4. How do I use a database? It is very easy to use the databases. You can search by article title, author, journal title, subject, or many other areas. Each database may have slightly different terms, but they all have the same searching information. For this example we will see how to use ABI/INFORM Complete.

5. When you click on the ABI/INFORM link, a new window will open. This lists all the different databases included in ABI, along with a short description. For best results, leave all databases selected and click Continue.

6. This is the Basic Search page. If you are simply browsing, this will be fine. However, if you need to conduct a more detailed search, click on the Advanced tab. I recommend that you always use the Advanced search- you will get better results.

7. The Advanced Search allows you to search by article title, author, publication title, subject, or any of the other methods shown above. Every database has basically the same search options, but they will have slightly different names.

8. For this example we will search for the subject “electronic commerce.” This advanced subject search will give better results than the basic keyword search. You can limit your results to full-text and scholarly journals, those which are refereed or peer-reviewed. ProQuest provides a detailed definition by clicking on “About.”

9. Some fields are constantly updating information. You may want to use articles that were written recently. You can adjust your search by date.

10. This is the results screen. These results have not been filtered for full-text or scholarly journals. Note that there are 84395 results. If you forget to select these options during your initial search, you can still show full-text and/or scholarly journals.

11. By narrowing the search to full-text peer-reviewed articles, we’ve brought our results down to 77235. Since “electronic commerce” is a rather broad topic, ProQuest has chosen some possible related topics in a box near the top of the screen. By adding an additional search term we can get better results.

12. I chose to narrow my search by adding “consumer behavior.” We are now down to 1925 results. These are listed in date order, with the most recent articles first. You can see what you are searching for below the box- it shows both search terms used for this search.

13. What if I don’t get any results? Each database has its own controlled vocabulary. Click on “Thesaurus” to get more information on how ProQuest organizes information.

14. Thesaurus You will be taken to a new screen to search.

15. Above are some of the results for “electronic commerce.” The list is in alphabetical order and will not stop at the end of your query. This search shows terms which may help you refine your results. Narrower term: more specific area within the term Broader term: more general area that includes the term Related term: other areas that may overlap with the term. You can also try searching these terms to expand your search.

16. Browsing If you are not sure what you want to search for, or if you just want to look around, you can Browse Topics.

17. This section is like the index of a book. It lists everything in alphabetical order. You can look at all topics, subjects, companies, people, or locations. For each entry there is the option to search for that entry in the database.

18. Gale Cengage databases Most of UNVA’s databases are in this format. You will begin on a Basic Search Screen. Notice the limiters for full-text and peer-reviewed articles.

19. The Advanced Search screen allows you to combine search terms, and limit by publication date, as well as the standard full-text and peer-reviewed articles.

20. Here is a sample search results screen. You can see how the results are divided into journals, magazines, books, etc. It does not have any limits. There are 31,347 results. By placing limits on the search, we can reduce the number of articles to a more reasonable amount.

21. Limiting to Full-text shows 2,222 journal articles.

22. Adding the Peer-reviewed limiter shows 1,861 journal articles. If you still have too many articles, you can choose a more specific subject. The “Limit By” section below the peer-review option allows you to choose subject areas related to your initial search.

23. Clicking on the arrow will show a list of different ways to limit your search. You can click on a subject to see the articles (number in parentheses). Other options are Publication Title and Document Type.

24. Clicking on the limiter “Artificial Intelligence” has brought the search down to 16 full-text peer- reviewed articles.

25. Just as with the ProQuest database, you can browse the subjects in the Gale databases.

26. You can browse by letter, or enter your search term.

27. A search for Computer Science shows several results. Company information is also shown. To get more specific information, click on the “view Subdivisions” link.

28. Each topic is listed in alphabetical order, with the number of results on the right. This does not narrow by full-text or peer-review. Clicking on the subject name will take to you to the results.

29. How do I find a specific journal? On the main Library page, there is a section called Journals A-Z. You can click on a letter to begin browsing or click See More Options to search for a journal. The default search is by title, but you can also search by subject. Enter the name of the journal you are looking for and click on Browse.

30. I searched for Time magazine. The results are separated into Full-text and Indexing. Indexing does NOT provide full-text. It just shows a citation for the article. The Full-text databases show how long they have had the magazine. All dates are not full-text, though. We will see how General Business File ASAP has Time.

31. This is a list of the issues this database has of Time. Clicking on the year will bring up a list of issues for that specific year. The July 26 issue is already available online. Clicking on the issue will open a list of the articles for you to view.

32. You can click on the article title, or the text link directly below it to view the full-text of the article.

33. What about newspapers? Many databases have full-text articles from major newspapers. ABI/INFORM has full-text of The Wall Street Journal. In the pull-down menu, select Publication Title, and then enter “Wall Street Journal” in the search field. Begin the search.

34. The most recent articles will be shown first. This tutorial was created on July 19, 2010, and the articles for that date’s WSJ are already available online. These articles are available in html full-text, which means that if there are any graphics or charts, they may not be shown. PDF full-text articles will be scans of the publication and will have all accompanying graphics.