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Top 10+ Online Searching Tips As Suggested by the Hessel Library
Staff
1. Identify/understand which type
of online resource you are searching. For example, is it the
resource:
- Academic Search Elite [EBSCOhost], a subscription database
which contains full-text magazine articles?
- LEXIS-NEXIS, a subscription database which includes
a news category to newspaper articles from major newspapers?
- netLibrary, a subscription database which contains
published, copyrighted books in electronic format, referred
to as electronic books (eBooks)?
- Yahoo, Alta Vista, Google - search engines - which
contain web sites?
2. If looking for web sites, try searching
more than one search engine, for example, search both
Alta Vista and Google. You
will find different results.
3. Use AND and OR
operators when searching the online magazine/newspaper databases:
EBSCOhost, FirstSearch, LEXIS-NEXIS, InfoTrac. For example:
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women and heart disease
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searches both terms
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drugs or medicine
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searches either terms
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4. Use quotation marks to search
phrases when applicable. This method is useful when searching
any of the FirstSearch databases, e.g., WilsonSelectPlus.
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"lake michigan college"
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"line item veto"
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"sink or swim" (as expression)
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5. Click on Advanced Search
when searching search engines. Information is given on finding results
using all the words, exact phrase searching, etc.
6. Check your spelling when entering
search terms.
7. Use the truncation feature [*] available
in the EBSCOhost databases and the FirstSearch databases, e.g.,
WilsonSelectPlus.
| invest* |
searches invest, investors,
investments |
8. To search local, regional,
and/or national library holdings: (under Library
Catalogs link)
9. To identify magazine databases,
go to the Magazines,
Newspapers, & Indexes link.
10. Use the edit function on the
toolbar to locate a word in an article or document you have located.
Select edit, then find. Type in the word to be searched.
The word will then be highlighted in the
document you located.
11. Check out the links on the library's
home page. Get familiar with what is available. Click on a link
and see what happens!
12. Don't hesitate to ask a library
staff member for assistance.
This page was last modified :
April 20, 2006
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