Most of the databases that Kent Library subscribes to have advanced searching features that give you more control over the information you find.  These include:

• wildcard -- using a special character such as * to stand for any possible character
• proximity/phrasing: controlling the distance between keywords in your search.  Useful for finding  words in phrases or right next to each other.
• special limiters: allow you to specify certain conditions, like 'only find book reviews' or 'only show me articles published within the past 12 months'

Some databases have special features and extras, such as:

•  collections of images, maps or transcripts of television/radio news programs.
• ability to store articles and/or searches in a personal folder, allowing you to retrieve articles later, or even be notified by email of new articles that match your area of interest.
• receive via email  the table of contents of new issues of magazines/journals that interest you.

Most of Kent Library's databases are supplied by 7 main vendors.  Some vendors use slightly different methods for their special features.  Each section will have info for the 7

Background Information | Wildcards | #proximity| Special Limiters | Specialized content | Content/Search storage and delivery/Table of contents delivery

 

Background Information

For a quick intro/refresher on what exactly these databases are and the basics of how to use them, check out Searchpath Module 4

There are several types of wildcards, sometimes denoted by different characters, usually * # and ?

• single internal wildcards: replace one letter: wom*n finds women or women
• multiple internal wildcards: replace multiple characters:  r?n: finds run, rain, even rangoon
• stem wildcards, commonly referred to as truncation find any letters at the end of a word, useful to search for words and their plurals at the same time: dog# find dog, dogs, dogged etc.
• use wildcards with a little care, for example the truncation T# would just flood you with results, most of them irrelevant, however, if you're not sure how to spell, say, irrelevant, then i?vant might be very helpful

chart of how wildcards work with various vendors. 

How do I know which vendor goes with what database?

If you're not sure what vendor supplies the database you happen to be searching, look at the top left of the screen: all 7 vendors have a logo with the vendor name at the top left of the screen

	Single internal	Multiple internal	Truncation
EbscoHost	?	n/a	*
FirstSearch	#	? (up to 9 characters ? will find any up to 9 ?5 will find five and so on)	* (minimum 3 letters before asterisk)
Jstor	?	*	*
Lexis/Nexis	*	** for 2 letters and so on	!
Project Muse	n/a	n/a	*
Proquest	?	n/a	*
Wilson	? (?? for two characters etc.)	*	*

 

 Proximity operators are special characters for finding two words that are right next to each other or a a few words apart.  A common operator is W, sometimes paired with a number.  Here's how it works:  April W showers would find 'April showers' April W3 showers would find 'April can bring many showers' or 'April means rain showers' but  not 'April is known for the frequency of it's rain showers' (more than 3 words between April and showers)

EbscoHost	n#  finds words within specified number of each other in any order w# finds words within specified number in the order you enter them
FirstSearch	n# finds words within specified number of each other in any order w# finds words within specified number in the order you enter them # can be any number 1-25
Jstor	put words in quotes followed by ~# example "earthquake japan" ~5 would find the 2 words within 5 words of each other
Lexis/Nexis	automatic phrase searching when you enter more than 1 word in a search box
Project Muse	enclose words in quotes to search as a phrase
Proquest	w/3 -select from drop box on search screen - words with 3 or fewer intervening words pre/1 --select from drop box on search screen - words directly adjacent
Wilson	not available

Special limiters allow you apply criteria to your search  as the date published, the nature of the article (editorial, feature, review etc.), type of publication (popular or scholarly), scope of publication (how many pages) or other characteristics above and beyond the text and subject matter

EbscoHost	checkboxes and choice lists appear below the main search screen
FirstSearch	checkboxes and choice lists appear below the main search screen
Jstor	checkboxes and choice lists appear below the main search screen
Lexis/Nexis	date range limitation available
Project Muse	checkboxes and choice lists appear below the main search screen
Proquest	basic checkboxes and choice lists appear below the main search screen & click on 'more search options' for additional choices
Wilson	checkboxes and choice lists appear below the main search screen

• Business Source Premier:  Company profiles
• EbscoHost databases:  Image collection of 180,000 photographs and other images including maps.
• Electric Library:  Images, audio/visual content, maps, broadcast transcripts
• Lexis Nexis Academic Universe:  Broadcast transcripts, business, legal, medical and general reference sources, company profiles

• save a search, schedule it to run automatically and email you new results if new information matching your search criteria is published.  This feature is useful for tracking new information on a given topic.
• schedule the email delivery of the table of contents for specific magazines/journals you are interested in
• create links to articles that can be included on web pages to click directly to a specific article or articles.

Ebscohost:
     After doing a search, an option will appear to 'sign in to My EbscoHost'. Clicking on this will allow you to sign in to (or sign up for if new) a personalized account.  This account will allow you to save searches, documents and schedule 'journal alerts' (email delivery of tables of contents of specific journals)

Proquest:

• After doing a search, you have the option of setting up an alert to receive emails of future results at daily, weekly, or monthly intervals for up to a year.
• Checkmark blank boxes to the left of items in search results to add them to the 'My Research' folder (near the top of the search screen).    When you've added all the items you want, click on the My Research folder to see options for generating a bilbiography (in MLA, APA and other styles), emailing documents or creating a web page with links to the documents you've selected.

Wilson Omnifile:
      After doing a search, click on the 'create alerts' button at the left of the search screen, then the 'alert' button towards the right of the subsequent screen.  This will prompt you for information for scheduling searches at regular intervals, with new results delivered by email.