Database Searching Tips and Tricks Therese Robin, Head of Library and Information Services, March 2013 Library & Information Services 2013.

Database SearchingTips and Tricks

Therese Robin, Head of Library and Information Services, March 2013

Library & Information Services 2013

Online information resources

The University has a huge and diverse range of digital information resources including, full text journal articles, eBooks and much more

The gateway to these is the Discovery search engine

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Discovery

Use the Discovery search box on the Library Home page

Discovery searches “the catalogue, digital collections, eBooks and some databases”

Once you have entered an initial search you will be asked to login and with results, other options appear.

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Using Discovery With Discovery you can look up everything at

once!

Then you can narrow to only the Catalogue (e.g. if you want a book)

Or narrow to full text journal articles; peer reviewed, date range, content provider etc.

Choose an article and try “Find similar results”

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Using Discovery

It is worth spending a moment to read through the University Library’s LibGuide on how to use Discovery

UniMelb LibGuide - Discovery

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The Discovery Guide

E.g. How to

1. Choose your search mode e.g. Topic keywords; title; author

2. Refine your search using limiters

3. How to access the items in your results list

4. How to manage your results…

5. Contains links to video tutorials.ORMOND COLLEGE

Important Tip!

Whatever the search tool –

choosing specific keywords

by intelligent analysis of your

assignment questions key

concepts is crucial!ORMOND COLLEGE

Discovery Output options

Print Email Save Export Citation in the format of your

choice to EndNote or RefWorks The Permalink option provides a persistent

link to the item. You can use this to share the article with others. This is useful for group work.

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Organise your search results

Sign in for My Stuff Click Sign in for My Stuff at the top

of the page to create your own account to save search results and create alerts.

You must sign in to "My Stuff" to save search results.

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Discovery caution

Discovery combines the information from the library catalogue, the digital repository and many databases into a single database so your search is faster, and more thorough.

Discovery does not: Completely cover all the databases the library

subscribes to. Have the advanced features specific databases provide. If you need to conduct a comprehensive search, for

example for a literature review, you should search individual databases as well as Discovery.

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Find a database – several ways

Use Find Databases link at the top of the Discovery search screen.

Choose a search mode: Title: to search or browse databases by title. Locate: to search for a specific database by

vendor, subject, keyword, type or title. Subject: to find databases recommended for

subject areas.

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Which database?

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Multi-disciplinary databases - a good start JSTOR: Content spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social

sciences. Academic Search Complete: A scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with

more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Proquest: Multidisciplinary collection of databases including important business

databases such as ABI/INFORM. Bibliographic and full text content including peer-reviewed journals, newspapers, industry reports and company profiles.

Expanded Academic: Expanded Academic provides access to scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers with coverage across all academic disciplines.

Informit Online: A collection of Australian research databases. Search all databases or select one or more specialised databases to search.

IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences: IBSS contains bibliographic records, many with full-text, for journal articles, books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951.

ATSI-ROM  (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Databases): A collection of databases that covers issues relating to Indigenous Australian & Torres Strait Islander communities. 

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses - Full Text: Over two million entries for doctoral and master's theses from around the world. Strong full-text content; multidisciplinary coverage

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Subject/Discipline specialties

Subject Resource Guides (Lib Guides) will tell you which database is best for your subject (and much more). Link on the on the Library home page Or

in Discovery under Subject Guides in the toolbar or to the left of your results list e.g. 'Medicine', 'Business & Economics' or 'Specialist' (e.g. Statistics and Mathematical Software).

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If you know the database or journal you wantFrom library home page select

Individual journals and databases under the Discovery Search box

or

A-Z journals and databases

(to find ejournals or databases by title)

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When asked to find information beyond the LMS – what’s the best approach?

Where you look

How you look

What type of information you look for

depends on your information need.

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Case studiesPrinciples of Marketing Assessment # 1: Individual Short Essay

You will submit an individual essay, critically analysing a ‘current’ (ie 2010 onwards)article of your choice. The article should draw on one major marketing concept which was covered in the lectures up to the date of the submission process (that is, up to the end of week 5). Your analysis should address the following:

1.  Describe the marketing concept which is highlighted in your article.

2.  How has this concept been applied and by whom is it being applied (i.e. it may be a commercial business or a non-commercial one i.e. not-for-profit). What initiatives or programs, if any, has the company introduced? What purpose does this marketing concept hope to serve?

3.  What impact will the application of this concept have/had on business performance?

The response should be attempted using the theory presented in the lectures.

You are expected to supplement your readings through additional reading and research and where possible, cite real industry/company examples.

Your article may either come from an academic journal or a non-academic journal (i.e. industry source such as The Australian Financial Review, Business Review Weekly, The Wall Street Journal etc).

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UniMelb Subject Guides

Case Studies in Business and Economics (Search this guide)

Marketing (Search this guide)

Company and Industry Information

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E.G. Market SegmentationMarket Segmentation of  Nokia

Keywords: case study nokia market segments

Try a general database like

Business Source Complete (EBSCO)

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) Limit your search by selecting case study as a

"Document Type". Alternatively, type ‘case studies’ in the search box > pull

down Select a Field > Choose SU Subject terms > AND in the following search boxes type your keywords.

Expanded Academic ASAP (Gale) Use keywords case study with your search

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Case studies

Or use the more specialised business databases e.g. EconLit with Full Text (EBSCO) Type “case

stud*” in the search box AND in the following search boxes type your keywords

SCOPUS (Elsevier) Type "case stud*" and your keywords in the search box . Add more search boxes by clicking on Add search field.

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Finding News Articles

Try the Libguide Finding News to see in-depth databases of newspaper articles and other sources

Simple trick when Googling: search within a particular newspaper e.g. China site:theage.com.au ; mining site:http://afr.com (ask Ormond library staff about free access to AFR and other newspaper articles)

Ormond Library Guide Where do you get your news

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Web of Science

It is worth spending a bit of time reading the tips on how to get the best results in a particular database

E.g. UniMelb subject guides

Other on www : e.g. Cardiff Uni How to get the best from Web of Science 5 top tips

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Tracking citations (for a literature review)

Uni Library Subject Guides

Tracking citations: a guide to tracking citations using various sources

Measuring research

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Tracking article citations

Lots of databases help you count citations

JSTOR [Search] [Citation Locator] [Items citing this item] 2 main databases owned by UniMelb,

provide tools to analyse citations.

ISI - Web of Science Choose Cited Reference or Author Search. Web of Science provides multidisciplinary coverage of over 12,300 high-impact journals, reports, conference proceedings and books. It covers Sciences well, but has a limited coverage for Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities.

Scopus

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Google Scholar tracks citations

Was there a Neolithic mortality crisis? SourceIt@Melbourne

JC Caldwell… - Journal of Population Research, 2003 - SpringerCited by 7

Related articles

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Library Classes, Tours and online tutorialsThroughout the year, the Library offers classes and tours. E.g.

Getting started: Library research (multi-disciplinary) Beginning historical research  EndNote (Windows) Introductory workshops

And Online tutorials e.g. Learn to use RefWorks in 20 minutes(YouTube: 7 videos) RefWorks Fundamentals - shows the basic features of RefWorks

including creating your database, managing your references and generating bibliographies. (YouTube: 9 videos)

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For consultations, contact:

Thérèse Robin,

Head of Library and information Services

Ext 1117

[email protected]

Mob: 0417 301 827ORMOND COLLEGE

Questions?

Library staff are trained to go beyond the obvious to find the best information for your particular need and we love to help!

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