TA Kathryn s Tips for Library Searching and Saving Information for Reference Lists Kathryn Bell, November 2012 Getting into the Trenches How to Effectively Search the Library Databases First, log on to the library! Pick your database (I often start with Academic Search Complete or one of the Psych databases) and get in there! Please note you can go into e- books, e-journals, use other libraries, search the databases, and get help (TUTORIALS!) through this screen too (left menu bar). You will need to log in with your user name and password in the next window (not shown). Next, before I even start to search, I usually get right in there and chose databases (click choose databases) based on what I am looking for. For example, if I am looking for information for a paper about Anorexia Nervosa and Disordered Eating in adolescent populations, I will probably include some health or medical databases for the perspectives of doctors and nurses in the field in addition to the databases specific to psychology. If I am looking for the media s portrayals of the role of Mothers across time, I will probably check off some communications or the larger media databases. Do not check them all off unless you have a specific reason to do so searches are slower, fulltexts are harder to find, and results lists are more difficult to weed through if you do check all.
I will then, most often, click Advanced Search and enter my search terms: These are actually pretty broad for search terms! I would narrow it down further by my specific topic in later, more directed searches, but sometimes it is nice to search broadly and scan the titles to get a sense of what is out there. You might also get ideas for specific searches by scanning the titles and keywords of a broad search like this quickly first. Please also note: Select a field you can search for journal title, article title, author etc. depending on your needs Boolean search modifiers (AND, NOT, OR, etc.) to narrow your search use these! The ability to select full text (I do not always, because I can often find the fulltext with some fancy footwork ) The check box for peer reviewed material Published date (I often leave blank at first, to get a better idea of trends in the research over time!!)
Jackpot! Finding the Perfect Article, and Then What? After searching, I scroll down and skim the titles of the articles that have come up. I am interested in the 18 th article that appeared with this search (if you are following along, it might not come up exactly at 18 th ) for its title, keywords, and the fact that it has a PDF fulltext for me. So, as a PC user, I am going to right click and open in a new tab! Tabbed browsing is your library friend, I promise you! You can see the second tab in this screenshot with have the detailed record for this listing without losing immediate access to my search results that way I can tab back and forth to compare a few articles at a time. When I switch over to the detailed record in the second tab, I can see there is a LOT of information available to me. I am skimming the abstract and wow, this seems like a great article for my paper now what? Well, let me highlight a few handy features of the detailed record window that you might want to explore when you are searching next, such as: ALL the information you need to reference the article A link to the PDF fulltext itself this is the best way to view and save the fulltext! A link to the cited references, if you end up interested in any of them
The option to save the detailed record as an html or plaintext document This handy little button called cite it will be your friend. You will not be able to right click and open in a new tab from this window, but there are always links back to the detailed record or you can use your browser s back button in a pinch. Why is the cite button so handy? Let me push it and show you:
Okay, stop, wait, before you go any further, read this very very carefully: NOTE: Review the instructions at EBSCO Support Site and make any necessary corrections before using. Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Always consult your library resources for the exact formatting and punctuation guidelines. Did you catch that? DO NOT use these as is. They are computer generated from the detailed record and are, more often than not, not completely accurate. That being said, they are a great place to start!! If you think you might use this article, why not copy and paste it into a working reference list document for your paper?! I usually create a separate Word document (or a page at the bottom of my paper in progress and use a split screen view) and copy and paste these citations in there to use in building my official reference list later! Knoll, S., Bulik, C. M., & Hebebrand, J. (2011). Do the currently proposed DSM-5 criteria for anorexia nervosa adequately consider developmental aspects in children and adolescents?. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 20(2), 95-101. doi:10.1007/s00787-010-0141-5 So there it is, all the information I will need to reference the article but I will have to double check the final formatting, font, and content before I use it as the basis of my reference list entry (I have even seen completely wrong authors come up in the generated citation). I cannot emphasize enough the need to manually check each of these over. Do not lose easy APA marks because you copied and pasted a reference; always check and reformat yourself. If you have not already done so, then you will want to view, save, and perhaps print the PDF file. Just click on the PDF fulltext button on the side and the article will come up for you in a PDF viewer. You have a link back to the detailed record if you need it and, if you are using tabbed browsing, you can easily leave
this tab as is and tab back to your results list to look at a few more articles before you decide this is the one. If you would like to have continued access to the file, simply save it to a folder on your computer from the top menu bar within the PDF viewer. There is also the option to print the PDF, which I often do so I can make my own notes in the margins and along the sides of the text. When I print, I print double sided and 2 pages per side (so 4 pages per sheet total) to save paper. I will also share a tip for renaming the files. They pop up with a number and extension so perhaps 169841321.pdf. Not very useful information for me! I always rename the file when I save it to either a few key words of the title OR the first author s last name (second author or et al) and then the year. Let me show you an example, you can see the folder with my naming system and you can see how I have changed the name in the File Name field: That way I can easily go back and find the article I am looking for if I need to reread something, look for a doi I missed, or skim the reference list within the article, I have them all on hand. I also do not print them all, so it is easy to go back and print one I find I am referring to often. This is Only a Sample This document does not give a full tour of the databases available to you, rather, a starting point to search efficiently. When you have more practice with searching the library databases you will develop your own favourite short cuts, habits, and search parameters.
Also, do note that if you are using a different database search engine through our library (for example: Science Direct, GALE, SAGE Journals, etc.) the search windows will look different than the screen shots I have provided throughout this document, but if you are familiar with these features, you will find they are available in some form in most of the database engines. I do NOT use EBSCO every time, but I did for this example for consistency and to follow through with one search and save, start to finish. In each of the different database search windows, you will be able to search (or advanced search), save fulltext PDFs, print PDFs, and export citations. You can select plain text format in Science Direct for example, to obtain reference information you can copy and paste to use in building your reference list note again you MUST review the information carefully plain text format will not have italics and may not be APA standardized, but will contain the majority of the information you need to build a proper APA reference. It is very important to familiarize yourself with more than one, because not all fulltexts will be available through the first database you go through!
Make This Your Own I hope these tips and tricks will be of some use to you, but I urge you to develop your own personal method in library searches. This is what worked best for me and it took me a few classes and many papers to refine my own researching process. As a TA and RA I further developed my efficiency within the databases and you will develop your own method and process for finding and keeping relevant information.