Bob Mitchell
English 101A
Fall 2009
Finding and Evaluating Library Resources
Step 1. Discover resources with Central
Search
- Find Books, Journal Articles, Web sites, all with a single search
across multiple databases.
- Nice Features: "One-Stop Shopping," Discover
new resources, Full-text filter, subject clustering.
- Discovery Tool: Best to use as a first step, to identify
good databases and quickly see scope of results.
- By default, search is looking for words in the title (you
can change this).
- More detailed and focused searching will be available from individual
database interfaces. See examples below.
- Access selected resources from Library
home page ("Quick Search" is limited to our online catalog,
HANS, and our periodical databases)
- Access all resources and fine-tune search from main Central
Search interface.
Step 2. Search HANS to find books
and ebooks in the Ohlone College Library
Step 3. Search a specific database
to find journal, magazine and newspaper articles, and reference articles.
CQ
Researcher
- What is it?
- Database of good in-depth but introductory articles about topical issues
SIRS
Knowledge Source
- What is it?
- Includes full-text articles on social issues and topics in the arts
and humanities
- If you need ideas, click on the Topic Browse & Database Features tabs
at top
- Explore the Pro / Con feature to the right (click on More Issues…)
- Search Tips: Start with a Quick Search, which defaults to a Subject Headings
search
- Review results. Select all Subject Headings you think might be appropriate
to your topic. (If a Websites button appears at left, click for authoritative
sources from the WWW).
- Click on View Checked Subjects box at bottom of list, review results, explore
Descriptors that are appropriate to your topic, use them to create new searches
Gale
Virtual Reference Library
- What is it?
- Like all reference sources, these e-Reference Books are good sources
for general overviews of topics from a variety of perspectives.
Academic
Search Premier
- What is it?
- Database containing both full-text and citation/abstract only articles
- Scholarly, peer-reviewed, academic journal articles AND popular magazine
articles
- Complex database, supports advanced features. Worth searching separately!
- Can narrow down results by suggested subject headings (left-margin)
- Can limit search results to just full-text, to peer-reviewed.
Step 4. Search for web sources
