Sarah Schwab - Section 7 (MWF 10:00-10:50)

Hi everyone! Here are my responses to the questions you submitted at the end of our library research class today. I'll do my best to explain things, but if you still have questions, please email me and/or post a comment below. -- Jamie Schmid (Your ENGL-190 Librarian)

"It's hard to know immediately which databases are good for what you're searching for. Is there any way to search all of them at once?"

The library has a free trial of a product called 360 Search that lets you search many (but not all) databases at once. It's linked from the library's trial databases page. Feel free to try it out! I'm not sure how long it will be available though. Another option would be to search all of EBSCO's databases at once. At the top of the library's database page there's a search box that says "Search Some EBSCOhost Databases" This search will include Academic Search Premier and other EBSCO databases. EBSCO is a database vendor.

It would be helpful to "go over a wider variety of databases and what their specialties are."

There are a few standard databases that I recommend often.

For general topics/current events/etc. - Academic Search Premier, LexisNexis Academic
For health and medicine topics - MEDLINE
For education - ERIC (EBSCOhost), and Education Full Text
For literature - MLA International Bibliography, JSTOR, Project Muse, Humanities Full Text
For history - Historical Abstracts, America: History & Life, JSTOR, Project Muse
For biology - Biological Abstracts
For psychology - PsycINFO
For religion/theology - ATLA Religion Database
For business - Business Source Premier, ABI Inform
For philosophy - Philosopher's Index
Social work - Social Work Abstracts
Sociology - Sociological Abstracts

I know that there are other disciplines I didn't cover, but I'm always happy to recommend databases for you to search if you let me know what you're working on!

I'm still unclear on "getting to 'University News."

Did you mean the SLU student newspaper the University News or the University Newswire search in LexisNexis Academic? The SLU University News is freely available online. A limited archive is available online. Older issues are available in the University Archives in the St. Louis Room (3rd floor, Pius Library).

To get to the University Newswire search in LexisNexis, click on the News button at the top of the main LexisNexis Academic search page. (This is illustrated on your class handout.) Under "Sources" select "University Wire." You may also want to specify a different date range for your search. The default time period is the last 3 months.

"A quick/dirty list of databases with full text would be nice for last minute things."

For last minute research, I'd recommend the following full-text databases.

For current events/general topics - LexisNexis Academic, (Academic Search Premier also has quite a bit of full text)
For the humanities - JSTOR, Project Muse
For education - Education Full Text
For psychology - PsycArticles
For biology - BioOne

For other recommendations, please send me an email and let me know what you're working on.

"Some things like what year to look for and what specific details to look for can still be tough."

This will get easier with practice! :) When looking at a print journal record in the catalog, remember that a dash between two dates means that we have everything in-between those two dates (example: 1992-1995. ) If a dash appears after a date, that means the library has everything from that date to the present (example: 2002- ).

"Why would we not search full text?"

I'm assuming that you're referring to the comment I made about not wanting you to click on the "Limit to Full Text" box in Academic Search Premier. The reason I said that is that by clicking on that box, you'll be limited to only seeing the articles that are available in full text in that particular database. Many, many, more would be available in other databases. You don't need to search another database to find them, just click on the "Find It At SLU" button. Also, many other articles will be available at SLU Libraries in print. All you have to do is make a photocopy of them. It's especially important to not place too many limits on your search when you are just beginning your research. You can always be more specific and limit your search more later on. When you start researching, its' a good idea to see what's out there.

"It would be good to have an example of a way to get the article on our blog step-by-step."

Do you mean an article that you have a citation for or an article that you've just found using one of the databases? The latter is covered in the Finding Articles on a Topic tutorial.

I'm actually creating a new video tutorial on how to find a specific article, but it's not ready yet. Here's the best I can do in the meantime.

1. Search by journal title in the SLU Libraries Catalog.
2. If you find a print journal record, check to see which library has the journal, what dates are available, what the call number is, and which floor it's located on. (Click on the link under "Location", not the call number link.)
3. Go find the journal on the shelf. Find the volume you need, then the issue, then the right page number.
4. Photocopy the article.
5. If the journal is available electronically, click on the "SLU Online Journal, click to access" link.
6. Check to see which database has the year that you need.
7. Click on the name of the database.
8. Browse the journal by year, volume, and issue.
9. Browse through all articles in the issue to find the one you're looking for.

"The hardest part was probably finding specific journal articles."
AND
I'm still unclear on "the first portion of the session." (finding specific journal articles.)

Please see my response to the previous question.

I hope this was helpful for you. Please let me know if you have any other questions!