Library Guided Exercise, Pt. II: Locating and Searching "Article/Indexing" Databases -- ANSWERS

Part #1: Searching EbscoHost Database(s): Academic Search Premier

  1. In the box following FIND, type the phrase "elwha dam" and click on [SEARCH]
    • How many items are retrieved? __11__
    • How many of these are available as "HTML full text" or "PDF" documents? __8__
    • Find and click on
  2. Limit this search to "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) journal" articles then click on [SEARCH]
    • How many references are there now?_4___
    • Find and click on
  3. Leave the "peer reviewed" restriction in place but, Expand the search by searching "within full text of articles."
    • How many do you retrieve? _14__
    • Find and click on
    • [CLEAR]this search AND [RESET] the limit/expand settings.
  4. Type "Elwha" in the box following Find but before you click [SEARCH] limit this search to full text articles only.
    • How many do you retrieve? _20 (note we broadened the search by leaving out "dam" but we are only seeing those that are available in full-text in the database._
    • Currently you are looking at "All Results."    Without redoing the search, can you see a quick way to find only those articles in "Academic journals" within this list? How many fit this criterion? __4__
  5. Find and click on the and if needed, clear the search box and and reset the expanders and limiters.   The "advance search" screen allows you to specify words in specific places (in titles, author names, abstracts, etc.). Most database vendors have a similar feature called usually called "advanced" searching, and where possible, we choose that as our default search option.
    • Open the menu of options by clicking on the down arrow to the right of Select a Field (optional).
      • How many options are available? __17__
      • Not all of these are useful in every database (e.g. "ticker symbol" will be used only in a business database).
    • Use two search lines, and look for articles with "Washington" in the AB Abstract... field and "dam*" in the TI Title field. How many articles are there?_146___
    • Since "Washington" is both a state and a city some of these will not be relevant
    • Using "dam*" (with the "*" as a wildcard) will pick up any word beginning "d-a-m" (i.e. we know we will get "dam" or "dams" or "damsite").    But is also picks up some title words that are unrelated to dams, what are five of these unrelated title words?     You may have found variations of many of the following words.)  _damaged__  _dames__   _damn__  _damp__  _ damon__  

Part #2: Searching FirstSearch Database(s): ArticleFirst
  1. To look for articles where "elwha dam" appeared in the title:
    • In the box following Search for, click on the down arrow (V) to the right of "Keyword";
    • From the menu select "title"
    • Type the phrase "elwha dam" in the search box and click on the Search button
    • How many items (citations) are retrieved? _5__
  2. From the tabbed bar above, locate and click on Searching.
  3. [Clear] this search.
  4. Type the single term "elwha" in the first Search for line and leave the default set at "Keyword."
    • How many citations or references are there now?___10___
    • Notice that some of these have the symbol following the entry.   These are references to articles in journals that OSU Library has cataloged at some time.    The journal title is listed as the Source and appears under the highlighted title line.
  5. From the list, find the 1996 article title beginning: "Measuring the economic benefits of removing..." and click on it.   Look over the information given and take note of the following:
    • The Source usually refers to the journal in which an article appeared (the "source" of the article or where it was published). What is the source of this reference? _Water resources research__
    • Locate and click on Search the catalog at OSU Libraries (OSU) Search the catalog at OSU Libraries (OSU)."    This initiates a search in the OSU Libraries Catalog for this journal title (not the article).
      • What is the OSU's call number for this journal? __GB651 .W35__
      • Is this article also available electronically? __yes__
  6. Now let's look for information on the general topic of "Dams in Washington (state)"
    • Try a Keyword search "(dam OR dams) AND washington" by typing "dam or dams" in the first "search for" box and "washington" in the second one then click on [Search].
    • In the gray area under and to the right of the navigation bar, find the line beginning "Records found."    This gives the number of references or citations your search produced. In this case, how many are there?___66___
    • Read down through the first ten titles -- which ones (by number) seem irrelevant to your search? ___#5, #7 #8 #10 perhaps others____
    • Why do you think this happened -- select one of the highlighted titles and look carefully, where do the search words appear__most often it is associated with the publisher, place of publication, etc. and refers to Washington, D.C.__?
    • Use the Searching tab to return to the search screen.
  7. On the Navigation Bar, find and click on Previous searches.
    • Here are listed the searches you have done in the order you did them.
    • This provides a way to combine search statements without re-typing and/or to see an overview of your searches.    If you have been experimenting with keywords, this can be a useful feature.
    • According to this list how many search statements have you completed? __at least 3__ (Note: If you entered a search more than once, you will have a different number of searches, so there is no standard "correct" answer, just report what you see.)
    • Notice you can Save a search and Run it again in a few days, weeks, or months.

Part #3: Searching Cambridge Scientific Database(s):Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management

Searching the database:
  1. To Look for articles where "elwha dam" appeared somewhere in the reference.
    1. In the first search box type "elwha dam" and click on [Search].
    2. How many references to you retrieve? _3__
  2. Notice the link to [Save/Print/Email]
    1. Mark the box [] in front of the first reference and click on [Update Marked List]
    2. Click on [Save/Print/Email] and send this reference to yourself.
      1. Notice you can request various standard styles (APA, Chicago, etc.) when you save these references.   This feature is useful for creating bibliographies for papers.
      2. Use your email address for both the TO and FROM addresses unless you want to mail the reference to a third party.    Then click on [Email].
    3. Click on [Return to Results] and you will be back at the full listing.
    4. Locate and click on [Edit Search]
  3. Now type the single term "Elwha" in the search box, again looking for it "anywhere".
    1. In the green bar at the top, under results what is the total "results found"? _20_
    2. How many references are actually shown? __18__
    3. This is because this database is an aggregate of several databases.   When you do a search there are some duplicates in the total, but duplicates are only listed once on the initial display.   There is a link to "show duplicates" at the bottom -- if for some reason you needed this information.
    4. Note:  Unlike the databases, ArticleFirst and Academic Search Premier this database includes a variety of sources including government publications and reports.   Read over the list you have retrieved.
    5. How many appear to be government reports (look for agency abbreviations like EPA, GAO, etc.) __~4__
    6. Look for the 2002 article by OSU authors Gregory, Li, and Li, "Conceptual basis for ecological responses to dam removal."
      1. In which journal does this appear? __Bioscience__
      2. Click on [View record].   This will take you to a longer record which includes an abstract/summary as well as links to subject headings used to describe the content and context of this article.    These can be useful for getting ideas for other terms to use in a search.
      3. Does the link to [Full-text linking] take you to the article? __yes (via the Proxy server)___
        Note: If we have a subscription to the electronic journal and if the publisher uses the right standards for providing "persistent links" to its articles. Generally, if you see "oasis.oregonstate" in the URL for the article, you will have access to it.   If you are asked to pay to view an article, this is not a library service.    However, it is worth double checking to see if we don't have electronic access to the journal via the library catalog.   Like FirstSearch, CSA allows you to open a search in the OSU Libraries' Catalog through the link to .    This feature allows you to:
        1. Search the E-journal list for this title, and
        2. See if the library owns the "source" journal in order to get a call number AND,
        3. If you are a registered Extended campus student, you can request the article from the catalog directly, or
        4. If it is not available at OSU Libraries, you can link directly to Interlibrary Loan service.   You'll need your ONID user name and password.
      4. Just to see how it works, try out the link for this article.
        1. What is the source title and volume? __Bioscience, Volume 52__
        2. Try out the links to the "ejournal list" and "catalog" (look for these discrete links within the statement: 
          Listed below are links to verify if full text of this item is available online. If it
is not, look for a print copy in our catalog. If it is not listed in the catalog or
the library's ejournal list, then select the InterLibrary Loan (ILL) link to place
a request.
        3. Locate and give the call number for this journal. _QH1 .A13 __
        4. Close these windows until you are back at the CSA page.
  4. Click on the link to Search History (upper right) and notice:
    1. You can delete any or all searches (but don't).
    2. You can use the numbers beside individual searches and combine them with AND or OR using the Combine Searches option at the bottom of the page;
    3. You can also save specific searches using your email address and a password and come back later (in the day or year) and run the same search.   You would use this feature when you had a particularly complicated search strategy worked out and wanted to update your search results later on on a regular basis.    In the latter case you would use the "save as alert" feature and the system would email you the results each time it ugdated the database (usually weekly).
  5. Click on the Advanced Search tab to return to your last search.   Finally, click on [Clear] to begin a new search.
  6. Now we will compare the results for the topic "dams in Washington" using "Keywords" versus words "Anywhere."
    1. Type "dam OR dams" in the first line and "washington" in the second and leave the field set at [Anywhere]
      1. How many results do you get? __1359___
      2. How many of these are from "peer-reviewed journals"? __363___
      3. Look at the peer-reviewed journal articles listed by clicking on the small highlighted number on the right.
      4. Notice that many of these articles (while well researched) seem off the mark for our search. Where the word "washington" coming from? ___Place of publication/publisher______
      5. It is probably good to reserve searching for word "Anywhere" as a last resort when using words with multiple meanings.
    2. Now click on [Edit Search].   Repeat this search but this time, change the searching fields from [Anywhere] to [Keyword KW] and notice in the search tips which fields this will search. Click on [Search].
      1. How many references do you retrieve? __460__
      2. In terms of geography (and perhaps in general), do they seem more relevant than the words "anywhere" search? __yes__

    Go back to Library Research Guided Exercise Pt. II: Locating and Searching "Article" Databases

    Go on to Library Research Guided Exercise III: Search Strategies

    Return to main page for NR 455: Natural Resource Decision Making: Week 2 Assignment

    Send a question/comment to Bonnie Avery