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Discovering the Secrets of Electronic Information

Discovering the Secrets of Electronic Information. or How to use the databases on the library’s web page to find magazine and newspaper articles as well as other information. Agenda. What is a journal index? Basic general search techniques Available databases on OPL Web Page

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Discovering the Secrets of Electronic Information

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  1. Discovering the Secrets of Electronic Information or How to use the databases on the library’s web page to find magazine and newspaper articles as well as other information. Instructor: Shayna Keces 236-0301, ext 441

  2. Agenda • What is a journal index? • Basic general search techniques • Available databases on OPL Web Page • Logging on to these databases • Searching for newspaper articles • Searching for magazine articles • Searching for book reviews • Other • Questions

  3. What is a Journal Index? • Index to newspapers and magazines (uses keywords to find specific articles) • Can be automated or manual • Indexing can be selective or complete or combination (eg. Canadian Periodical Index indexes the Globe and Mail but only certain sections) • Full-text indexing means search mechanism searches entire text of article • Full-text database means that database will provide citation as well as text of article (may or may not include pictures)

  4. Basic General Search Techniques • Think of keywords which describe the information you are looking for and which should be found in the article. • Try to be as specific as possible • Think of alternative words (remember the words you choose must be found in the article) • Use the word “and” to narrow a search and “or” to enlarge it • When using your keywords remember most databases consider words without “and” or “or” to be phrases. Quotes are not necessary except in Electric Library.

  5. Basic General Search Techniques cont. • In most databases, capital letters are ignored and in cases where they’re not, it’s usually a good idea to omit capitalization. • Decide if it is important to have Canadian content (CBCA, Canadian Periodical Index, Canadian Newsdisk, Electric Library Canada) • Think about what forms of information would suit your needs, i.e. newspapers (Canadian Newsdisk, Electric Library), magazines (CBCA, Canadian Periodical Index, Ebscohost databases, Electric Library), TV news shows (Canadian Newsdisk, Electric Library)

  6. Electronic Databases Available from OPL Web Page • Alt-Health Watch (database focused on complementary, alternative and integrated approaches to health care and wellness) • Biography Resource Center (Biographical information on more than one million people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas)

  7. Electronic Databases Available from OPL Web Page • Canadian Newsdisk. (Automated full-text index and database for 14 Canadian newspapers and transcripts of many CTV and CBC television news programs. Some sources go back as far as 1994 and there is usually a 1-2 month time lag in the present. Includes Ottawa Citizen) • Canadian Periodical Index. (Mainly Canadian database which indexes about 400 English and French journals, about 160 of them are full-text. Includes full text of Globe and Mail minus sports and business sections.)

  8. Electronic Databases Available from OPL Web Page • CanCorp Financials (Financial data on more than 12,000 Canadian Companies) • Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA). Indexes over 750 periodicals, mostly Canadian and includes full-text of more than 300 sources. • EBSCO MasterFILE Premieris alarge mostly American full-text index to more than 1800 magazines as well as an index to another 2200 periodicals

  9. Electronic Databases Available from OPL Web Page • Electric Library Canada. (Automated full-text index and database for about 750 journals, magazines, reference books and television programs. Content is mainly American but some international and a fair selection of Canadian sources.) • Grolier New Book of Knowledge (children’s encyclopedia) • Grolier Lands and Peoples (encyclopedia on countries)

  10. Electronic Databases Available from OPL Web Page • Grolier New Book of Popular Science (science encyclopedia) • Health Source: Consumer Edition (Provides full text indexing of nearly 160 health journals as well as indexes another 180) • Literature Resource Center (critical essays on writers and their works) • Novelist is a reader’s advisory tool to help you find novels on specific subjects or other works by specific authors.

  11. Logging on to OPL’s Databases • Go to library’s web page (www.library.ottawa.on.ca) • Click on English • Click on Electronic Info • Click on title of database you would like to access (If you are accessing EBSCO Masterfile Premier or the health databases you will have to click on Ebscohost databases first) • Type in the new 14 digit library barcode in the box provided and press “Submit” The Grolier products will only ask for the first 5 numbers in your barcode and will have an extra signup procedure requiring user name and password both of which are ottawapl

  12. Searching for Newspaper Articles • Decide whether you are looking for Canadian articles. If yes, try Canadian Newsdisk or Electric Library (or Canadian Periodical Index for Globe and Mail articles not in business or sports sections.) • For American or international sources use Electric Library. • For French Canadian sources use Biblio Branché (in library use only)

  13. Searching for Newspaper Articles cont. • When searching for an article try to identify words or names you know will be included in the article. General concepts will generally not work. • If you are looking for a particular article in a particular newspaper, restricting your search by the title of the newspaper and the date may be a good idea. Byline is good too but be careful how you phrase it (using last names only is often good but if an index exists for Byline it is a good idea to use it, eg. Canadian Newsdisk). Also remember the byline can have different forms.

  14. Practice • 1. Find a story in the Ottawa Citizen written by Gay Cook in the past two years about a Lebanese takeout called Really. • 2. Find a newspaper article about the TV show “Between the lions” produced in Boston. • 3. Find an article about the Prime Minister published in yesterday’s Ottawa Sun

  15. Practice Hints • 1. Use Canadian Newsdisk. Restrict to Ottawa Citizen and use byline field by clicking on Index (Canadian Newsdisk uses first name and last name). • 2. Use Electric Library to access US newspapers. Put title in quotations. Unclick all other sources and make sure Newspapers is on all and not recent. Put Boston in publication box. • 3. Use Electric Library to access the Sun. Put Chretien in search box and put Ottawa Sun in publication box. Set publication date range for yesterday.

  16. Finding Magazine or Journal Articles • Determine whether the information you want is more likely to be found in Canadian or American sources and if it is health related. (CBCA and Canadian Periodical Index are mainly Canadian, Masterfile Premier is mainly American and Ebscohost also has Health Source, Consumer Ed. and AltHealthWatch.) • Does it have to be a scholarly journal? (Ebsco will allow you to select scholarly only) • Do you have distinctive keywords or just a general concept. (Ebsco and CPI are best for subject access and CBCA next. Electric Library has poor subject access.)

  17. Practice • 1. Find an article in a scholarly journal on designing office buildings. • 2. Look at both the conventional and alternative treatments for osteoarthritis. • 3. Find some articles on the effect of divorce on children. • 4. Find a picture of the Empire State Building • 5. Find an article on how the increased competition in long distance services in Canada has affected phone bills.

  18. Practice Hints • 1. Use Ebsco Masterfile Premier. Use the keywords architecture and office and put a checkmark beside Academic/Scholarly Journals. • 2. Use Health Source Consumer Edition for conventional treatments and Alt-HealthWatch for alternative treatments. Use keywords osteoarthritis and treatment* (asterisk in many databases means to find that root word and anything which follows).

  19. Practice Hints cont. • 3. Try CBCA or Ebsco Masterfile Premier. For CBCA use the subject index to find subject headings dealing with children of divorced children. For Ebsco use advanced search and search for children in subject and then divorce* and effect* in default fields. • 4. Use Ebsco Masterfile Premier and Images Tab • 5. Use CBCA and several keywords linked by the word and (eg. competition and long distance and phone and bill*)

  20. Searching for Book Reviews • Book reviews can be found in newspaper indexes, magazine indexes and literary criticism database. • If looking for critical review, try Literature Resource Center. • If looking for review of Canadian author not that well established, try Canadian Newsdisk or CBCA, maybe Canadian Periodical Index. • For American or international authors, try Literature Resource Center, EBSCO Masterfile Premier or as last resort Electric Library. The Canadian sources may also work.

  21. Practice • 1. Find a book review for the book Total recall by Sara Paretsky • 2. Find a book review for the book No great mischief by Alistair Macleod. • 3. Find a critical review of Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou.

  22. Practice Hints • 1. Try Ebsco Masterfile Premier (click on subject tab and input name of book) or Canadian Newsdisk for newspaper reviews (input name in search lead paragraph field or search anywhere field and change article type to Review). • 2. Try CBCA (input title of book in title field), Canadian Periodical Index (input title in subject field), and even Ebsco and Literature Resource Center since it’s a major work. (search by title and remember to look at Literary Criticism, Articles and Work Overviews)

  23. Practice Hints cont. • 3. Preference should be Literature Resource Centre (LRC) since it is a major American author and you are definitely looking for critical reviews. (Make sure when you search that you check radio button for “all words entered” or “exact title” otherwise you will get too many irrelevant articles). You can use any of the other databases as second choice. If you don’t find the correct article using LRC’s title index, you can sometimes still find it using the author since the Title index for Literature Resource Centre has not been completed.

  24. Other • Other types of information available • Information on lands and peoples • Scientific encyclopedia • Information on Canadian public corporations • Program to help you choose what novel to read next • If you are having trouble finding what you want contact the Reference Desk. We may be able to figure out why you are not getting the results you’re looking for. phone : 236-0302, ext. 233 email : ref@library.ottawa.on.ca

  25. Questions

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