Reference Database Training ALL Staff Meeting 2/7/08

Below is a basic handout I've made for the research workshops I will be teaching at the high school. Much of what I list here replicates what we discussed at the Feb. 7, 2008 All Staff Meeting. This goes into more detail in some respects, and in others it's just advice to students, but I think it's handy for everyone to look over as a reminder.

Aram Public Library Database Options: http://www.delavan.lib.wi.us/

Badgerlink:
EBSCOhost: Search here for Magazines and Journal Articles.
ProQuest: Search for Newspaper Articles.
African American Biographical Database: Info on influential African-Americans.
NewspaperARCHIVE: Access NewspaperARCHIVE contains tens of millions of searchable newspaper pages, dating as far back as the 1700s. It is your gateway to searching and reading historical newspapers online.
LitFINDER: Find Author Bios, Poems, Essays, Stories, Plays, and Speeches.
WISCAT: A collection catalog of most Wisconsin Public and College Libraries.
WORLDCAT: A collection catalog of most libraries in the entire world.

Chilton Automotive Repair Database: Covers car repair and maintenance from the 1950s-2007.
Legal Forms: Find electronic copies of all legal forms.
Testing and Education Database: Practice tests for the ACT, SAT, GED, GRE, ASVAB, all Civil Service Tests, etc.

Overdrive: Free downloadable audio books, movies, and classical music.
NetLibrary: Free downloadable E-Books.
Heritage Quest: Online Genealogy tool.

Examples and Tips:
General Tips: Start broad. The more search terms you use the more defined or narrow your search becomes, and less likely you will find anything on your subject. Be creative. If the terms you are using are not coming up with results, think about other words that can be used synonymously, and use those words. Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s highly unlikely that you are the first to write about a subject; so use the literature you find from others and look at their works cited to find those articles or terms to use when searching for more articles. Be persistent. Quality research is not easy and it takes effort and time; start early so you find your path and so you have time to order things that are not fulltext. Learn the tools. Not all search engines work the same way. Learn the rules for each search engine and apply them to your search to yield results; you wouldn’t build a bike without consulting the instructions first. Think outside the box. Don’t just think about what your subject is, but think about what your approach to the subject is; you may have a medical subject, but your approach is socio-economic, or business, or ethical/religious, etc. The approach may tell you more about where to search than the subject will. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Good researchers know when they are stumped and go to professionals (LIBRARIANS) when they are stuck. Convey what you want and what you’ve tried to the librarian. The more you know, and have tried in all the above tips, the better it is for the librarian to help you find what you need.

Definitions of terms:
Abstracts = summaries of what the article is about.
Boolean = adding “and, or, not” between search terms to yield more specific results.
Truncation = adding * at the end of a word to search all possible variations. Example category* Would search categories, category, or any other word that has some other ending.
Wildcard = For example, type ne?t to find all citations containing neat, nest, next, etc.
Proximity = Near Operator (N) - N5 finds the words if they are within five words of one another regardless of the order in which they appear. For example, type tax N5 reform to find results that would match tax reform as well as reform of income tax. Within Operator (W) - In the following example, W8 finds the words if they are within eight words of one another and in the order in which you entered them. For example, type tax W8 reform to find results that would match tax reform but would not match reform of income tax.
Stop Words = These are common words such as, of, in, the, a, an, after… that the search ignores no matter if they are in quotations or not.

Ebscohost: 1. Select the database(s) you want to search that your subject would most likely be in. 2. Enter your search terms with the word “and” between the terms. (example: steroids and testosterone). When you type in “steroids testosterone” without the “and” you only get 12 articles. When you type it in above you get 667 articles. You can add more terms to narrow it as you go. 3. Click on the article to view the Abstract. If the abstract seems like it leads you somewhere you want to go, view the article or print the citation page to be brought to the library for Inter Library Loan. You can print all content on Ebscohost, or email it to yourself. You can also sign up for an RSS feed of a particular search you create so when new results appear you are notified via RSS reader.

Proquest: 1. Select Advanced Search. 2. Fill in the boxes with terms and use the drop down arrows to find the appropriate field to search. Remember, Proquest does not do all newspapers. It searches the major, independent papers and only that paper’s standard edition. Even still, you’ll find millions of articles.

Litfinder: Not all literature is included, but a lot is so give it a try. You may find searching for specifics are easier and then browsing those results yield a better path. Example: Search for Ibsen in the Author field. Find him and then below the biography it gives you links to all the works listed in the database by him. Many are fulltext.

WISCAT and Worldcat: You will not find fulltext items on these databases, this show what library owns specific items.

Chilton Automotive Repair Database: Must have an Aram Public Library Card.
Legal Forms: Must have an Aram Public Library Card.
Testing and Education Database: Must have an Aram Public Library Card.
Overdrive: Download the Overdrive Media Consol the first time. After that it’s as easy as clicking your mouse.
NetLibrary: Create a Free Account.
Heritage Quest: Must have an Aram Public Library Card.