How to Use Discovery How to Use Discovery the Research the Research DatabasesDatabases

Here is a step-by-step guide Here is a step-by-step guide to using the Discovery to using the Discovery research tool and the research tool and the Research Databases.Research Databases.

Discovery is a search tool that encompasses all of the library’s databases. To access it, click on “Discovery” at the bottom of the homepage.

Step 1

Note: You must be signed into the TCC network to access these articles. If you are a student who needs access outside of the network, you may contact the library director for login information.

Enter a keyword, title, or author who you would like to search. Here, we are interested in finding material about zombies.

Click “Search” to find articles based on the information you typed into the search bar.

Keyword: uses the word or phrase that describes a subject to search for articles that fit that description.Search: “event horizon”Article result: “Contradictions in the Definition, Creation, and Existence of Black Holes”

Title: searches for articles with the words you search in the article titleSearch: “faint young sun paradox”Article Result: “Clouds and the Faint Young Sun Paradox”

Author: searches for articles by the author you search forSearch: “Stephen Hawking”Article Result: “What is a Black Hole” by Stephen Hawking

Step 2

Here are the results the search “zombies” gave us. Suppose we are doing research on zombie survival tactics and we need credible, peer-reviewed, scholarly articles to cite. You can narrow the search by clicking “Refine your results” on the top of the menu bar as indicated by the arrow.

Step 3

Sometimes Discovery will show you just abstracts of articles. Since you probably want the whole article, click “Full Text (Online)”.

When doing research, it is best to use peer reviewed articles because they are credible and accepted as good research in the scientific community.

If you want to search for material only owned by Skeen Library, you may click “Available in Library Collection”.

If you are only interested in information published at a certain time, you may change the range of publication dates. For this example, we are only interested in current information from the last ten

years.

Click “Update” to

apply the adjustments.

Note: If you want something that Skeen Library does not have, or is not available in full text, see Step 7 on how to order a copy from ILL.

Again, for this case we want only credible sources for research. Let’s check “Academic Journals” and “Periodicals”.

Checking “Reviews will give me book and movie reviews. I’m not interested in zombie fiction. “Biographies” will give me biographical articles on people who maybe have dealt with zombies, like producers, authors and anthropologists.

Click update to apply the adjustments.

Step 4

You may also want to narrow your search by types and subject, just below the “Refine your results” menu.

You may wish to narrow your search even further by using the tabs on the bottom of the menu bar. Perhaps I only want information from the U.S. and Canada because those countries have more experience in zombie invasions. To narrow my results, I will click on “Geography”.

Choose the countries in which you would like to see

publications from, then click “Update” to apply adjustments.

With my results narrowed, I see an article that will help with my

research in zombie survival tactics. To read the article, click

on “PDF Full Text” at the bottom of the description.

Step 5

You now have complete access to this article. You can print, e-mail, save, cite, export, and link it from the side bar on the right. From the sidebar on the left, you may explore other articles in the same periodical or browse graphs and figures.

Step 6

Step 7

Suppose you find an article that is not available in full text or does not belong to NMT Skeen Library. You may then order from ILL.

Click “Request through

interlibrary loan” to start a

request.

This link will take you to the ILLiad login page where you can begin making your request. Please see tutorials on how to make article requests if you are unfamiliar with ILLiad, or how to sign up for ILLiad if you do not have an account.

Research Databases are electronic databases of journals and articles that the NMT Skeen Library subscribes to. They are very similar to Discovery, but usually focus on a specific science, like GeoRef has geological papers and PubMed has medical and biological papers. To access the databases, click “Research Databases” in the first column of the Skeen Library homepage.

Step 1

You may choose to view the databases by subject or by title.

Suppose you are looking for an article on disease. You may choose

“Databases by subject” and scroll through the biology section.

For this example, we will choose “Databases by Title” because we just want to do a

generic search.

Step 2

To do a generic scientific search, the ILL’s favorite database for

scientific or technical articles is “Web of Science”. Click on the title to access the database.

Note: You must be signed into the TCC network to access these articles. If you are a student who needs access outside of the network, you may contact the library director for login information.

Step 3

Enter the title of the article you wish to request. You may provide more information, such as author name and publication information

from the drop down menu.

Click “Search” when you have entered

your search information.

Step 4

Click on the EBSCO logo to look at the full-

text.

Step 5

EBSCO will often send you to an

abstract page like this one. If we also have access to the

full article, click “Full Text (PDF)” on the abstract menu bar.

Step 6

You now have access to the full article. You may print it or save it

for your academic and scholarly use.

Step 7