Instructor:Shayna Keces236-0302, ext 441 January 2002

Access Newspaper and Journal Articles from home or at the library

Using Electric Library and EBSCO Host

Agenda

What is a journal index?Basic general search techniquesIntroduction to Electric LibraryLogging on to Electric LibrarySearching on Electric LibraryIntroduction to EBSCO HostLogging on to EBSCO HostSearching EBSCO Host databasesOther available databases

What is a Journal Index?

Index to newspapers and magazines (use keywords to find specific article)Can be automated or manualIndexing can be selective or complete or combination (eg. Masterfile Premier indexes the first page of each section of the New York Times not whole paper)Full-text indexing means search mechanism searches entire text of articleFull-text database means that database will provide citation as well as text of article (may or may not include pictures)

Basic general search techniques

Think of keywords which describe the information you are looking for and which should be found in the article.

Try to be as specific as possibleThink of alternative wordsUse the word and to narrow a search and or to enlarge it

Decide if it is important to have Canadian contentThink about what forms of information would suit your needs (newspapers, magazines, TV news shows)

What is Electric Library?

Automated full-text index and database for journals, magazines, certain reference books and television programsMainly American but has some international content and a fair selection of Canadian sourcesA total of about 750 sourcesIndexes Ottawa Sun up to previous dayIndexes Ottawa Citizen in house only with 4-6 week time lag

Logging on to Electric Library

Go to library’s webpage (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)Click on EnglishClick on Electronic Info Click on Electric LibraryClick on logo eLibray PlusType in your 14 digit barcode (must have new library barcode)Click on Continue

Searching on Electric Library – Natural Language

Natural language is a question expressed exactly as you would ask someone. Remember to include any contextual informationEg. “What is the current thinking on legalizing

marijuana” will give you a very different result than “What is the current thinking on legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in Canada”You can use a phrase search in Natural language

Searching on Electric Library-Boolean

Boolean search is using a combination of keywords and is generally much more efficient

Can be used from the main search page by clicking on the radio button beside Boolean search or can use form retrieved by clicking on box “build a boolean search”The word “and” will narrow a search and in EL must be in capital lettersThe word “or” will broaden a search and must be in capital lettersTo search for a phrase put it in quotes

Other ways to limit your search

Choose the format of material (Newspapers, magazines, Books, Pictures, Maps, or TV and radio transcripts)Restrict to Canadian sources onlyChoose to restrict dates of publicationRestrict your search to particular publicationsRestrict your search to particular author in Byline (use last name only to ensure you get correct result)Select number of results

Practice

1. Find a story in the Ottawa Sun about a car driving into the Rideau Canal

2. Find a book review for the book Total recall by Sara Paretsky

3. Find all the magazine articles you can on the career Fashion designer

Hints for Practice

1. Use the publication field Use a phrase search for Rideau Canal

Use Boolean logic and remember to press radio button and put AND in caps

2. Use Boolean logic and put the name of the book in quotations

3. Use Boolean logic. Expand the number of citations you can retrieve. Limit by form of publication and date to retrieve all possibilites

Evaluating your search

Sorting your documents (automatically sorted by relevance, can also use date, reading level, size, title and publication)

Refine search will let you change your search terms if results are not what you anticipated

If you have retrieved maximum number of results refine search and increase number as you will be missing results which may be more relevant

Working with individual documents

Go to best part (when looking at a document will show section which has most occurrences of your keywords) Document options

View Printable copyE-mail

At bottom in dictionary look-up if you need to check a definition of a word

More information on using Electric Library

Tutorial provided by Electric library to walk you through a typical project http://www.rogerseducation.com/tutor/

Electric Library has very detailed help pages http://www.elibrary.ca/s/plusca/s-plusca/info/helptips.html

What is EBSCOhost?

Vendor of automated databases.

Databases range from being indexes to a combination of full text and indexed databases.

Mostly American although one of the databases has significant Canadian content

EBSCOhost Databases

MasterFILE Premier is a a large full text index to more than 1800 magazines as well as an index to another 2200 periodicals Canadian MAS FullTEXT Elite provides full text index to nearly 190 periodicals as well as an index to another 460 magazinesAlt-HealthWatch provides full text indexing of more than 170 journals as well as hundreds of pamphlets and reports on alternative health subjects.

EBSCOhost Databases cont.

Health Source: Consumer Edition provides full text indexing of nearly 160 health journals as well as indexes another 180.

Novelist is a reader’s advisory tool to help you find novels on specific subjects or other works by specific author.

Logging on to EBSCO Host

Go to library’s webpage (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)Click on EnglishClick on Electronic Info Click on EBSCO HostType your 14 digit barcode in the box providedChoose between the database Novelist and the EBSCOhost Web which includes the rest of the EBSCO databasesChoose the database(s) you want to search

Searching on EBSCO Host

Default is standard basic search which is the only one you can use at home and must specify “and” and “or”

Best not to use capitals in keywords or operators

Phrase search is automatic if you have two words together without a Boolean term (ie and, or, not). Do not use quotation marks.

Searching on EBSCO Host cont.

Guided search helps build a Boolean search

The default search is to search the author, title, subject and abstract for the keywords you specify.

If you need an academic article, you can choose to restrict your search to scholarly journals.

Searching on EBSCO Host cont.

If you choose only one database you will have option of searching by subject. (with two databases you will have to do a keyword search first and then if you find a relevant article, click on the subject)If you choose Masterfile Premier by itself you also have the choice of specifying type of material you would like to see (eg primary documents, biographies, reference books). From home must use guided search for those options

Searching on EBSCO Host cont.

You can also choose to search for pictures by clicking on the button labeled Image Collections

Put keyword in text boxWhen you get result list click on thumbnail picture which interests you and will get full scale pictureTo print click on Print/Save button at bottom of pageMake sure Image with copyright and Display to Print are the chosen itemsClick on Submit buttonClick on word File in Menu bar and choose Print

Practice

1. Find an article in a scholarly journal on designing office buildings2. Find a book review of Sara Paretsky’s book Total Recall3. Find a picture of the Empire State Building 4. Look at both the conventional and alternative treatments for osteoarthritis

Practice hints

1. Use the keywords architecture and office and put a checkmark beside Academic/Scholarly Journals 2. Include the word review3. Use the Images Collection on top of page4. Choose to search Alt-HealthWatch and Health Source: Consumer Edition and change the Options settings so you can view the results separately

Evaluating your results

If the number of articles you get is too high you can limit or narrow them by

Looking at the first two pages of results. If you find a good article try clicking on the subject heading of that article, Click on the Refine Search button to add more keywords to your search using “and”On the search screen under “Limit Results” click on the box beside Full text documents so that they will only search titles where the database has the full text

Evaluating your results cont.

Limit your search by specifying more recent articles in the date published area Restrict your search to a particular journal (To find a list of the journals click on choose database and under relevant database click on “complete title list”). Restrict your keyword search to a specific field (Use guided search to help you do that)

Evaluating your results cont.

If the number of articles you get is too low, you can increase them by broadening your search by

Adding keywords to your search using the word or as the connector Under the expand the search make sure also search for related words is checked and EBSCO will use it’s own thesaurus Under the expand search check off search within the full text of the article although that may give you more than you bargained for

Displaying your results

Will see no. of results as well as no. of pages. If there are more than 5 pages and you want to get to the end you can only get there in five page increments by clicking on >> to get to next set of pages

Displaying your results cont.

Clicking on the title underlined in blue will give you the citation as well as the abstract. If the words Full text in blue appear in the results as you page down you will also see the full text of the article. If you see Full Text Image instead of Full Text, this indicates a PDF document and you will need to click on that either from citation or results page. (P.S. you will also need the plug in for Adobe acrobat to view these documents)

Displaying your results cont.

From the results page you always have four buttons

Refine button will let you refine your search if the results are not what you wantedPrint button will let you print your results (you can print the citations or the citations and full text so make sure that you do not try to print too much. If you are unsure after you click on print you can estimate no. of pages)Email button will let you email the results. Again if you are emailing, make sure the results are a manageable size. If you mark specific records then the program will only send those records.

Displaying your results cont.

Save button will allow you to save your results

If you are interested in specific articles, the same buttons will be available on the page you are viewing and then you know the size of the file is manageable.

If you are searching more than one database, you can use the Sort function under Options to display the results of the different databases separately.

Other databases available from home

Literature Resource Center (critical essays on writers and their works)CBCA Fulltext Reference indexes over 750 Canadian magazines and newspapers with full text for about 180CBCA Fulltext Business has full-text access to nearly 140 periodicalsCanadian Newsdisc full-text access to 14 Canadian newspapers and some CBC and CTV television transcripts

Other databases available from home, cont.

Canadian Periodical Index indexes 400 Canadian and international journals and newspapers. Full-text for 160 and some French content

Biography Resource Center (Biographical information on more than 1 million people)

CanCorp Financials (Financial data on more than 12,000 Canadian Companies)

Other databases available from home, cont.

Grolier New Book of Knowledge (children’s encyclopedia)

Grolier Lands and Peoples (encyclopedia on countries)

Grolier New Book of Popular Science (science encyclopedia