FINDING ARTICLES ONLINE

Academic Search Premier | INSPEC | Computers & Applied Sciences Complete | Education Research Complete | QUIZ

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1. When first accessing any online academic database, the FIRST thing you should do is:
Do a basic search
Click and read the HELP screen
Use the THESAURUS
Do an advanced search

2. What is the difference between a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, and a journal that is not peer-reviewed?


3. Explain what results you would get with the following search: COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION NOT ONLINE
Articles that have the words COMPUTERS and EDUCATION in them, but not the word ONLINE
Articles that have the words COMPUTERS, EDUCATION, and ONLINE in them
Articles that have the word COMPUTERS in them, and either the word EDUCATION or ONLINE
Articles that have the phrase COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION in them

4. T/F All databases use * for truncation
True False

5. Searching COMPUT* in Academic Search Premier will get you:
All records that have COMPUT in them
All records that use a form of COMPUT in them, such as COMPUTER, COMPUTING, COMPUTATION.
An error message

6. When doing scholarly research in an academic database on a topic with which you have little familiarity with the terminology, such as ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY, you should:
Do a general search, using one term
Do a search on the term in a general search engine, such as Google, instead.
Make use of a database’s thesaurus
Choose another topic

7. A student finds an article that fits her topic perfectly, but she has to find at least 3 more articles. What can she do?
Look at the SUBJECT TERMS for that article and use them to modify the search
Look for other sources written by that article’s writer
Look at what the article itself references and find some of those sources
All of the above

8. What is the difference between CONTROLLED VOCABULARY and NATURAL LANGUAGE SEARCHING?


9. If you conduct a search and receive over 100 results, what should you do?
Use the LIMIT feature to limit to just scholarly articles, if you have not already done so
Modify your search strategy
Select from any of the first 5 records you get
A and B
None of the above

10. When you have a list of results from an academic database, and some results look like they might be useful. What should you do?
Print out the results that have full-text online
Keep searching until you find records that are exactly what you are looking for
Print out the entire search screen
Save those results, using the STORE RECORDS or PUT ITEMS IN FOLDER feature

EXERCISES



1. Go to Academic Search Premier via BGSU Libraries' Home Page.
Research the following topic, seeking only scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles:
THE USE OF DIGITAL IMAGES/PHOTOGRAPHY IN EDUCATION
  1. Write at least 6 words or phrases to use for this search
  2. Write at least 2 search strategies
  3. Write the number of results you receive for 1 of your search strategies
  4. Record the full bibliographic information for TWO articles that you believe fit the topic well. Include author(s), article title, journal title, volume and issue numbers, date, and page numbers.
2. Go to INSPEC via BGSU Libraries' Home Page.
Look up any ONE of the following in the THESAURUS:
  • Information technology
  • World Wide Web
  • Internet
  • Computer applications
  1. Write at least 3 terms that come up under either Narrow or Related terms
  2. Search one of those terms as a subject term. Record the number of results
  3. Re-do your search, this time searching that term under “all fields” (or, just keyword). Record the number of results
  4. Explain in 4-5 sentences the advantages to using the THESAURUS, and the advantages to not using the THESAURUS feature. What do you gain from using it? What is lost?
3. Go to Computers and Applied Sciences Complete via BGSU Libraries' Home Page.
Conduct the following search: COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION NOT ELEMENTARY. Search only scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals.
  1. Record the number of results
  2. Revise the search, typing: COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION AND ELEMENTARY. Again, search only scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals. Record the number of results.
  3. Revise the search, typing: COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION OR ELEMENTARY, keeping the limiter at scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals. Record the number of results.
  4. Explain in a short paragraph (4 or 5 sentences) why the results were different for each search.
4. Go to Education Research Complete via BGSU Libraries' Home Page.
Conduct an advanced keyword search on the following: TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION. Search only scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals.
  1. Record the number of results
  2. Search on this topic again, this time making use of the THESAURUS. Keep the limiter set at scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals
  3. Write at least 2 alternate terms you get for TECHNOLOGY and EDUCATION
  4. Conduct a search using a couple of these alternate terms. Write your search.
  5. Record the number of results.
  6. Discuss in a short paragraph (4 or 5 sentences) the advantages and/or disadvantages to using the thesaurus feature


      
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