Posts tagged tools

Go to the library homepage at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu (if you click the link now, it'll open in a new window).

Choose Databases from the Quicklinks.

Use the A-Z list (the pink area in the picture below) at the top of the Databases page to go to the L's.

Choose Lexis-Nexis Academic from the list.  The general Lexis-Nexis screen will let you search for company information, but if you go to the Business tab at the top of the page, you will get the same information packaged for you in a much more useful way.

On the Business search page, look for your company by its name.  If it is a public company, you can also search using the (stock) ticker symbol.

This page at Yahoo Finance will let you look up ticker symbols easily --

http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup

There's a snapshot of information on the main page.  The links in the shaded green area below will let you search for news information, patent information (under Intellectual Property), legal information and more about your company.

You can find information on more than just big, publicly-held companies in here too.  Limit your search to a particular city or state, and search by company name, and you will find more local information about companies you might want to work for, or compete with.

If you have questions, you can contact me (anne-marie.deitering AT oregonstate DOT edu), or leave a comment.

Launched in 2004, Google Scholar provides a way to use the power of Google to search for scholarly articles, presentations, reports and more.  While Google Scholar can be a great tool for finding scholarly sources, those sources aren't always free.  Anyone who has used this tool has clicked on a likely-looking resource, only to be taken to a page where they can get the article, if they pay for it.

The OSU Library spends a lot of money every year to give OSU students, faculty and staff access to those articles.  Here's how you can set up your Google Scholar to let you know when the articles you find are available at the library.

Go to Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com (if you click the link right now, it will open in a new window).

Click on the Scholar Preferences link next to the search box.

The next page will let you set your preferences.  Look for the section headed Library Links.

Enter the name of the library you want Google Scholar to connect to.  You can include up to 3 libraries.  Enter Oregon State University to connect to OSU Libraries' holdings.

Click all of the OSU options.  Now, when you search in Google Scholar, you will also get information about the OSU Libraries' subscriptions.

This is what the results of a simple search on "overfishing" look like before changing the preferences --

And this is what they look like after changing the preferences.  Look for the Find it at OSU link to the right of each result.

Clicking the Find it at OSU link takes you into the OSU Libraries' holdings.  If the source you want is something that the library had to pay for, you will need to log in with your ONID information to prove that you are from OSU and allowed to access the library's subscriptions.

If the system can, it will link you directly to the article.  You may have to link to the journal, and then browse to the article.   If the article is not available in print, you may have to get access to the print copy in the library.  If any of these options do not work, or if you have any questions, ask a librarian and they will be happy to help you get the article you want.

Good luck!

One big plus side to saving your work online is that it is really easy to share that work with other people - which comes in really handy when you have groupwork to do.

Here's how to create a folder that you can easily share with a study group or project group using your My EBSCOhost account.

Go to the library homepage at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu (if you open this link now, it'll open up in a new window).

Log in to your My EBSCOhost account (don't know what I mean?  Here's how to create one.)

Do some searches, and create a special folder (EBSCOhost calls it acustom folder) for the results you want to share.

When your folder is ready, click on it and then click on that little Share link underneath the title.  A email form will open up.  Enter email addresses for the people who you want to share the folder with, and add a message if you want.

Decide whether you want people to have access to the folder just once - or over and over again.  If the answer is "just once," click the box that says Restrict Passcode to Single Use.

Your friends will get an email that looks like this.  They will need to copy and paste the passcode out of the email to see your folder.

To open a folder that someone has shared, log on to MyEBSCOhost (if you share with other people, they need to have MyEBSCOhost accounts themselves).  Click on the little Add link next to the folder called Shared By:

Cut and paste the passcode in (from the email) and the new shared folder will be visible.

If you have any questions, contact me (anne-marie.deitering AT oregonstate DOT edu), or leave a comment.

So the other day I was working on a research question, and I was trying to find an article that I know is out there - I know I saw it while I was working on this project.  And I tried and tried to remember the search terms that I used that other time so that I could find it again.

Everyone knows to save their work, right?  (Even if we don't do it as often as we should).  But have you ever thought of saving your research work - saving the stuff you find, and even the searches that you do?  The EBSCOhost databases at the library let you save your work online.  This can be a huge time-saver if you:

Regularly work on more than one computer.

Want a safe backup for your work in case something goes wrong.

Are working with a group of people on the same research project.

Here's how:

Go to the library homepage at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu (if you click this link now it will open in a new window).

These steps will work in any database that we get from the company EBSCOhost. If you're not sure where to start, Academic Search Premier is a good starting point for most searches.

Click the link at the very top of the page marked Sign In to My EBSCOhost --

The first time you will need to register with EBSCOhost to create your account.  The link to do this is kind of hard to see --

Create your username and password, and then you're good to go.  You save things to your My EBSCOhost folder the same way that you save things to a temporary folder. Once you have things in your folder, they will stay there until you delete them.

And now when you log on, your folder has items even before you do any searches -

You can create folders within your big folder - save things by topic, or by project name, or by class number, or anything that makes sense to you.

Play around with what you can do here - you can save your searches and more.

If you have any questions, contact me (anne-marie.deitering AT oregonstate DOT edu).

Most article databases let you create lists or folders of articles to save, print out, or email to yourself - basically, to keep yourself organized.

Here's how to do this in EBSCOhost databases.

Go to the library homepage at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu (if you open this link right now, it'll open in a new window).

Choose Databases from the Quicklinks list.

This will work with any of the databases we get from EBSCOhost.  If you're not sure which one to use, Academic Search Premier is a great starting point.

(If you're off-campus or using wireless you will be asked for a login - just enter your ONID information)

Do some searches.  When you find articles that you want to keep, add them to your folder by clicking the Add to Folder icon in the search result list.  If you change your mind, click the folder icon again to remove the article.

As soon as you add something to your folder, an area labeled "Folder has items" will appear on the right side of your screen.  You can see what is in your folder there.

You can keep doing searches, and keep adding items to your folder.  When you're done, you can save your folder to your desktop, print it out, or (and this is what you will want to do most of the time) email the folder to yourself.  When you email to yourself, you can use the same trick that you would use with a single article to tell the database which citation style you want to use - this will save you time later when you create your works cited list.

Once you get out of EBSCOhost, your folder will disappear.  If you want to save it permanently, so that you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection, all you need to do is create a My EBSCOhost account.  This makes sense if you:

• Regularly work on more than one computer.
• Don't want to clog up your email, or jump drive.
• Want a backup of your research work, in case something goes wrong.

This post will show you how to do that - Save your research online with a My EBSCOhost account.

If you have questions, contact me (anne-marie.deitering AT oregonstate DOT edu).

Good luck!

Go to the library homepage at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu (if you click the link now, it'll open in a new window).

Choose Databases from the Quicklinks.

This trick will work with any database that we get from the company, EBSCOhost.  (If you're not sure which one to use, Academic Search Premier is a good starting point).

If you're off-campus, or using a wireless connection, you might get asked to log in with your ONID when you click on the database.  Once you do that, you should be good to go for your whole research session.

Do some searches and find some articles that you might want to use for your project.  Once you have some articles, there are two ways that you can use the database to get a head start on your works cited list.

FIRST WAY -

Email the articles that you want to keep to yourself.  This is a good way to go if you are not ready to start writing yet.

Let's say that we want to keep the third article on this list - click on the title of the article, Factors Influencing the Scope and Quality of Science and Management Decisions.  You'll get a screen like this --

At the top right, there are a row of icons.  The email one is pretty obvious - the little envelope.  When you click that icon, you get this screen --

Pull down the dropdown menu under Citation Format.  Choose the style you need to use for your paper or project.  When you get the article in your email, the citation information will be formatted for you and you can cut and paste it into your works cited list.

SECOND WAY

You don't have to email articles to get the citation information formatted for you.  This method works if you are in the process of writing your paper and you just want to grab something for your works cited list or bibliography.

Let's go back to that article record -

This time, choose the fourth icon from the left, that looks like a little page (the one without the arrow).  When you mouse over it, it will say Cite this Article.  Click that icon, and the database will create a page with lots of citation options:

Choose the style you want, and cut and paste the citation into your paper.

A WORD OF CAUTION - Sometimes, the citation you get will not be perfect.  Tweak any mistakes (like a title or author in all-caps) before you hand in your paper.

ALSO, if you are using the MLA format, you need to add some information yourself:

Where the labels Library Name, City and State Abbreviation are listed in brackets (the pink area in the image above) - write in information about Oregon State University Libraries and remove the brackets.

Good luck!  Questions?  Email me (anne-marie.deitering AT oregonstate DOT edu).