The MostEfficient Way to Find Articles:
Online Databases
You could browse randomly through magazines to find articles on your topic,
but this would be very time consuming. Using a database to find articles is
a more efficient use of your time. Databases list articles published in periodicals
and sometimes other material, such as conference proceedings, book chapters,
papers, and more. The most common types of periodicals are magazines, newspapers,
and journals. Some databases include abstracts, or summaries of the article
and some have the full text articles. Databases may be general, covering many
topics and others are subject specific, restricted to specific fields or disciplines.
Many databases allow users to find articles by topic, author, periodical title,
date, keyword, etc. Online databases are the most efficient way to find articles
because they can search over several years worth of articles at a time and
frequently have the full text of the articles you need.
Online v. Internet
Some magazine and journal publishers do publish articles on the Internet. Generally
this is limited to sample articles or even just abstracts of the articles,
so if you do search the Internet for articles you generally will not find
many on your topic. Since all the library's databases can be accessed at home and have
thousands more journals available than what is freely available on the Internet,
using the databases will get you more articles in less time.
Online Databases & Access
What Are They? Online databases are indexes or databases of articles and
citations to articles. They are accessed through the Internet, but do not search
the Internet. When you perform a search in an online database you are searching
a list of articles, abstracts, and in some cases the full text of articles.
The original publishers of these articles have agreed to make these articles
available to the database and the library has purchased the right to access
the database. Generally not all articles are
full text, even in a full text database. Why? Because some publishers choose
not to make the full text of their articles available in databases and some
choose to delay (or "embargo") the availability of the full text for a
predetermined
length of time, such as 3, 6 or 12 months.
Access
COM Library's online databases are accessible on and off campus. To access the databases,
look under Find Articles on COM Library's home page and click on Databases. If
you are accessing the databases off campus, a login page will come up when you
click on a database name. Enter your patron ID and last name as instructed
on the login page. All COM student, faculty and staff should be able to login.
In COM Library, you can access databases from the computer workstations in the Online
Library.
The Databases Page
COM Library's Databases page has numerous databases and database collections.
Databases include description of the subjects covered and are organized by
subject to make it easier for you to select the right databases for your
subject. Quick Links are include on right hand side of the page
to provide quick access to our most frequently used databases and collections. Related
Resources that may be of interest to anyone doing research, such as
a link to eBooks or COM Library's guide to citing resource MLA Style, Remote
Access FAQs and the Database Help page.
Database Help Page
Databases have to be searched to access the information in them,
which is generally full text articles from periodicals. A few databases can
also
be browsed for
information. How you access the information all depends on the interface created
by the database vendor. The Database Help Page
covers how to access information in several databases: CQ Researcher, EBSCO databases, Facts on File and
includes links to Gale database help and COM Library's Literature
Databases Guide to learn how to access articles on literature and
literary
criticism. The Research Tutorial also covers some of this information.
Search Techniques
Generally, when most people sit down at a computer to perform a search
in an online database, they click on the database and type in a word or
phrase, then click search. This usually results in hundreds or thousands of articles to
look through. While there is nothing wrong with this, there are techniques
you can use to save yourself the time and effort it takes to look through a
long list of articles. Sometimes, rather than too many, you can't get
enough. Search Techniques covers several ways to narrow and broaden your search,
so you can save time. These techniques can be used in almost any database,
as well as with most Internet search engines.
Narrow Your Search
There are several ways that you can narrow your search in online databases.
Ideally, narrowing your search will get you down to fewer articles,
while retaining enough for you to really use, between 20-80 articles.
Narrow with Boolean: AND Boolean operators describe a conceptual relationship
between search terms and include: "and," "or," and "not." The
best way to narrow your search, as mentioned in the Research module
under Too Much Information,
is to use the term and. Most databases allow and to
be used in your search statement. Example: If you wanted to know how affirmative action has affected African Americans,
you would type in: affirmative action and African Americans. You are narrowing
down a search on affirmative action to only those articles on affirmative action
that involve African Americans.
Narrow with Boolean: NOT
The term not tends to narrow a search the most. In fact
it can sometimes eliminate all articles. It really should only
be used when you
have performed a search and keep on getting results that you don't
want. Example: If you wanted to find all articles on Bill
Clinton that involved scandal but found that there were so many that involved
Monica Lewinsky that you
couldn't find out what the other scandals were, you would enter: Bill Clinton
and scandal not Monica.
Narrow with Limits
Virtually all databases have limits that you can apply to your search,
though they vary from database to database. Rather than narrowing by concept,
as with and, you are reducing the results by limiting to specific
attributes of a publication, such as full text, date or publication type.
Broaden Your Search
If you are not getting enough articles, you probably need to broaden your
search. It could also be a sign that you might not be using a database
that covers your topic, so check that first. If you are in a database
that you think should cover your topic, there are several techniques
that you can use to broaden your search.
Broaden with Boolean: OR Or is good to use when there are several terms that can be
used to describe the same or similar concept. If you need more articles,
ask
yourself if there are other ways to describe your topic and include
them. Example: If you are looking for articles on the death
penalty, you could enter: death penalty or capital punishment.
Expanders
Some (but not all) databases have expanders that you can use to broaden
your search, such as search for related words or terms, and search
within the full text of the article.
Pearl Growing
Another technique you can use to get more articles is called pearl growing.
If you retrieve even just one article that you are really interested in,
click on it. In most databases you will see a list of subjects or descriptors describing
your article. By clicking on any of those subjects, whichever one focuses
on the the aspect you are most interested in, you will retrieve more articles
with a similar focus, if they are available.
There is another way to "grow
pearls." Read the titles and abstracts of articles that seem close
to what you want. Do you see any terms that describe your topic that
you did not use in your search? Use these new terms to do more searches.
Questions about Articles?
For answers to COM Library's most frequently asked questions about articles,
accessArticle FAQs.
Still have questions?
If you still have questions after reading the FAQs, try some of
COM Library's other FAQs, or you may ask the Reference
Librarian for assistance. The Reference Office is located on the ground floor
of the library near the Online Library.
