Some EBSCO tips

Some thoughts on Rebekah's senior unit on art and database suggestions that others might want to take note of.

IN GENERAL IN EBSCO: 

Create your own folder and store your articles in it.  See the "Folder" icon at the top.
Sign in when you start so that this option is available to you.


If in doubt, click on  the "Ask Ingrid"  tab at the top.  Do this ANYTIME you are not finding what you need.  It'll help me figure where your frustrations are (Yes, I've heard "I HATE EBSCO" more than once and yes, you are not the only ones).

Be patient.  In these Google days we all want everything NOW, but if you take your time you'll end up with much more useful information.  Believe me..

Take a good look at database options when you log in.  Sometimes Student Research Center is a good place to start to figure out which direction you're going.   Academic Source Complete is the monster that has a lot and can be overwhelming (or depressingly underwhelming depending on what you're looking for).  MAS Ultra has a lot more than articles, including primary source documents.  MasterFILE Premier covers general interest/public library type stuff.  Newspaper Plus is...well... newspapers.  Good for current events.  Several of the databases also include BOOKS.

Rather than worry about whether you are searching "find all words" or "Boolian/Phrase," enter your terms on separate lines in Advance Search.  An easy way to the narrow your search is to then click on highlighted terms in an article that has the kind of information that you want.  Hover over the folder with magnifying glass to get a synopsis of the article.

START BROADLY with your search.  Try to get a couple of basic terms that define what you're looking for and then figure out how the database has organized what you're looking for.

If you get too many results:

Use the Search Options on the right to further limit what KIND of results you're getting (such as date, full text, etc.)

Use the Narrow Results options on the left if they look good. 

If you don't get enough results:

Try rethinking your search strategy.  Pare it down to a more basic search and then use the options above to help you refine your search.

I'll try to offer more suggestions in future blogs.  Time is so limited!

Some specific ideas for Rebekah's assignment:

Start small with the
Religion and Philosophy Collection

If you're looking for phrases like "art interpretation" make sure you're using the ADVANCED SEARCH and enter your terms on two separate lines.  By default, this turns your search into Art AND Interpretation.  If you use the techniques above, you'll be able to refine your search with subject headings specific to your search.

For example, I searched on Art AND Interpretation and ended up with 499 results.  I then limited to the  "Full Text" option on the right (Remember to "Update Results").  This brought the results down to 454 --still a lot, but now I know that I only have full text.  One of my subject narrowing choices is "Art" and up to now, I haven't selected a subject, just search terms so I'll pick that one.  Here I discover that there's an entire journal dedicated to my topic:  The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and I take a note to search that title alone when I'm done with this search

The article "The Artist's Sanction in Contemporary Art" looks good.  I could either save that to my folder which I've created or if I want more help in refining my search, I click on the CITATION.  This gives me more search options by clicking on highlighed terms that look good.  Note that this will not "remember" your previous search terms.  Here "In Defence of Painting" looks good.  I add it to my folder, look at the citation, etc.

If you want to go back to a previous page DON'T use the browser's back button.  Instead use the "Return to Result List" option.

I tried another search using "Art" on one line and "Censorship" on the next  in the Advanced Search.  62 results--not bad.  I can work with this.

So by understanding what terms you need to use, you can hone in on your topic.  Once you feel comfortable with your search strategy, give "Academic Search Complete" a try. (Use the "Choose Databases" option at the top).  EBSCO remembers your search--when I search on "Art" AND "Censorship" here I get an overwhelming 883 results.  The first step is to limit to "Full Text" which narrows things down to 418 articles.  Here, I can either further narrow my search to Academic Journals or choose the subject heading "Art-Censorship."

EBSCO keeps a running tab of your limitations at the top of the results column.  If you don't like what you've ended up with, use the X to remove that option.

Out of time!  I'll try to add more thoughts another time.  Remember you can access the EBSCO databases from anywhere.  You just need the URL and the login/password.  Email me if you forget.

Whew!

Enjoy your holiday.

Your devoted word herder,

Ingrid