Online Library Orientation: 3. Databases

What is a database, anyway?

In the context of a library, a database is usually a collection citations, abstracts, and full-text articles to which the library subscribes. Databases are expensive, but our subscriptions provide Gonzaga students, faculty and staff with free access to articles in academic journals, newspapers, trade publications and more.  Most of these articles can't be found by searching the Internet. To learn more about databases, watch this video created by a student at Yavapai College.

Wondering what "peer review" means? Watch this video from the librarians at North Carolina State University.

You're ready to try a basic search! This video walks you through a search in an EBSCO database. Don't let the term " Advanced Search" scare you. It just means you have more options to design your search from the start.

"Advanced Database Use" section below contains more tips on improving your searching skills. Please take a look at Tips & Tricks and Subject Headings. The rest are optional for the purposes of this orientation, but you might find them helpful. 

How to Get the Full Text of an Article (when it isn’t in the database)

Very few databases will have the full text of every article. Sometimes, a database only provides the citation and abstract. This is useful for evaluating the relevance of the article to your research, but not so great, if you decide that you want to read the entire article.

Fortunately, Foley has a tool that will search for an article in all of our online databases and connect you to the full text of that article if it is available in any of those databases. 

If you are searching for a particular article or journal, it would take forever to search every single database. There are ways of making that search easier. One of them is using Periodicals@Foley. You can use Periodicals@Foley to see if the library has a specific journal.  You can also use it to look for a specific article from the information in a citation. Here's how:

When an article you want isn't available from one of Foley Library's resources, or, say, when you find an article in a web search but the publisher wants you to pay $35 to download it, the library's Interlibrary Loan department comes to the rescue!

There are two ways to order an article using Interlibrary Loan. The first is to click on the link to Check Gonzaga Libraries for Full Text Options that accompanies a citation in a database:

If we don't have the article in any other database, you'll see a link to request the article via interlibrary loan:

Click there to get to the sign-in page for Interlibrary Loan. Once you sign in, the system pre-fills a form with all the information needed to order the article.

Select your Needed Before date and your Department (Organizational Leadership, Religion, etc.) and Status (Graduate, Undergrad, etc.), then Submit the request.

What happens next? Our interlibrary loan department identifies a library that owns the journal and sends the request to them. That library scans the article into a PDF and, once it's uploaded to your ILL account, you get an email that the article is available.  An uploaded ILL document is only available for 30 days or five views, whichever comes first, so it's a good idea to download the PDF right away! Oh, and even though the name of the service is interlibrary loan, articles are yours to keep. Books, on the other hand, do need to be returned . . . but you knew that already.

The other way to order an article requires a bit more effort, but it works just as well.  Log in to ILL, click Create Request, and select the type of item you are requesting: Article, Book/Media, or Book Chapter. Fill in the form with as much information as you can and submit the request.

We can get almost any article requested through ILL. It is seamless, fast (but not instant), and free to you, so don't let that perfect article get away!

Google Scholar searches for scholarly content across the internet. It's easy to use, but you won't want to rely on it as your only source.

Connect Google Scholar to Gonzaga's Library:

1. Go to Google Scholar: www.scholar.google.com 
2. Sign in with your Gmail account, then go to Settings.    
3. Go to Library links and search for Gonzaga
4. Select University Foley Library – Full Text @ Gonzaga
5. Save.

Log into your Gmail account when searching Google Scholar to use your settings.

Another Connection Option: Add this link**-  Reload in Foley Library Proxy Server - to your bookmark toolbar to access full text at Foley

1. Find an article through Google Scholar, or other search method.
2. Click the link in your bookmark toolbar.
3. Login through the Proxy server with your Gonzaga credentials, if Foley subscribes to the resource, you will now have access to our subscribed content.

**How to add the link to your toolbar:

Firefox: Right click and save Reload in Foley Library Proxy Server to your bookmark toolbar 

Chrome and Safari: Click and drag Reload in Foley Library Proxy Server to your bookmark toolbar

PROS - Things Google Scholar is good for:

1. Google Scholar shows you how many times an article has been cited, and by whom. Just click "Cited by . . ." under the article abstract to see a list of every citation Google is able to retrieve.

Why is this useful? Well, you already know that looking at the list of references from a good article will help you find other useful articles on your topic. That's looking backward in time to articles and research that preceded the one you are reading. Looking at "Cited by..." in Google Scholar, allows you to look forward in time, to articles and research that followed the article and hopefully built upon it.

2. Google Scholar is great for getting a quick-n-dirty overview of a topic. We're all used to Google's keyword-heavy searching. Searching Google-style in Google Scholar is a great way to find relevant articles quickly, which can help you get a feel for the journals, terminology, and issues surrounding your subject of research. You can then use that knowledge to search more deeply in the library's subject-specific databases.

3. Google Scholar can find "gray literature," like conference proceedings or unpublished works, that are often not indexed in scholarly databases.

4. Google Scholar is good at helping you fill in missing information if all you have is a partial citation. Often Google's search algorithm can find the full citation for you. 

CONS - Things Google Scholar is poor at:

1. Google Scholar cannot retrieve anything that is not available or cited on the surface internet. The majority of scholarly work is not on the surface internet.  Anything behind a paywall — like a scholarly database — is invisible to Google.

2. Google Scholar has no subject headings and few ways to refine a search. This makes it more difficult to zoom in on just the right results.

3. Google Scholar has no way to search by discipline. Searching is almost entirely keyword based, and your keywords may apply to many disciplines.

3. Not everything Google Scholar finds is actually scholarly. Google's magic algorithm takes into account indicators like whether the article has been cited elsewhere, but at the end of the day it's just a guess.

4. Google Scholar isn't picky about the quality of the full-text it finds, so you need to be. One of our librarians found a great article using Google Scholar,  but the PDF provided was an early version of the article, complete with editors marks!

 “Boolean Searching”  uses the words “AND” “OR” “NOT” to limit or expand a search in a database. Most of the time, you will use “AND”.

• I want articles about adolescents with self-esteem issues. My search strategy is:  self esteemAND adolescents.  This retrieves only articles where ALL these words appear within the database record.
• I want articles about school administrators, but I don't want to miss any that use the wordprincipals. My search strategy is:  principals OR administrators.  This retrieves articles where either of these words appear within the database record.
• I want articles about recreational activities, but I'm not interested in hiking.  My search strategy is: recreation NOT hiking. This retrieves articles that include the word recreation, but leaves out the ones that also have the word hiking.
• I can combine Boolean operators if necessary. If I want articles about administrators of middle schools. My search strategy is:  (principals OR administrators) AND "middle schools".  The parentheses creates a set of article records that have either the word principals or the wordadminstrators. To get the articles about middle schools from within that set, I narrow my search with AND.

In EBSCO databases, the MyEBSCO folder can help you to keep track of articles you are interested in.

Search Alerts save valuable research time, and can be set up to provide automatic e-mail notification whenever new search results become available. You can also retrieve those alerts to perform the search immediately, instead of waiting for the alert to run. There are two ways to save your search as an alert.

Note: To create an alert, you must log in to My EBSCOhost to create a search alert.

If you do not log in prior to setting up a Journal or Search Alert you will be prompted to do so. If you do not have a My EBSCOhost personal folder, you can set one up by clicking on I'm a new user. It is free and signing up is quick and easy.

Creating a Search Alert

To save your search as an alert from the Share link:

1. Run a search and view your search results.

2. Click the Share link and select E-mail Alert from the resulting pop- up menu. The Create Alert window appears over the result list.

   

3. If you have not done so already, click the Sign in link in the alert window to sign into your My EBSCOhost folder.

4. Set your alert parameters and click Save Alert.

   

Note: When you create a Search Alert, the sort selection of the result list is honored for your alert. For example, if your result list is sorted by relevancy when you create your alert, your alert will be sorted by relevancy when it is delivered.

In the E-mail area of the window:

1. Subject - In the Subject field, enter a brief explanation that will appear in the subject line of the Alert e-mail.

2. E-mail from - Defaults to: EPAlerts@EPNET.COM. You can enter a different "From" e-mail address if desired.

3. E-mail to - Enter your E-mail Address. If you are entering multiple e-mail addresses, place a semicolon between each e-mail address.

4. Hide addresses from recipients - If you select this option, the e-mail addresses you enter will be placed into the BCC (Blind Copy) field of the e-mail, rather than the "To" field.

5. E-mail format - Select Plain Text or HTML.

In the General Settings area of the window:

1. Frequency - Select how often the search will be run:

   • Once a day (the default)
   • Once a week
   • Bi-weekly
   • Once a month

2. Results format - Select a results format for your alert.

   • Brief
   • Detailed
   • Bibliographic Manager

3. Articles published within the last - To limit which articles are searched, select one:

   • One month
   • Two months
   • Six months
   • One year
   • No limit (the default)

Note: To view all available alert settings, click the Advanced Search link.

To save a search as an alert from the Search Alert/History window:

1. Run a search and view your search results.

2. Click the Search History/Alerts link, and then click the Save Searches/Alerts link. The Save Search Alert Screen appears. If you have not already signed in your personal account, you will be prompted to do so.

On the Save Search Alert Screen

1. Enter a Name and Description for the Alert.

2. To run the Alert against a different database, select the Databases from the drop-down list. (Hold down the control key and left-click your mouse to select multiple databases.)

3. Search strategy - The search terms are displayed. (not editable)

In the Save Search As area of the screen:

1. To save the search as an Alert that can be automatically run, click the Alert radio button. The Save Search Alert Screen appears.

2. To select how often the search will be run, from the Frequency drop-down list, select one:

   • Once a day (the default)
   • Once a week
   • Bi-weekly
   • Once a month

3. To limit which articles are searched, from the Articles published within the last drop-down list, select one:

   • One month
   • Two months
   • Six months
   • One year
   • No limit (the default)

4. In the Run Alert for field, select one:

   • One month
   • Two months
   • Six months
   • One year (the default)

In the Alert Options area of the screen:

1. Select the Alert results format: Brief, Detailed, or Bibliographic Manager.

2. To limit EBSCOhost access to only the articles in alert (rather than the entire site), mark the checkbox to the left of this field.

   Note: When this box is marked, the folder feature will not be available to users accessing articles from the alert.

In the E-mail Options area of the screen:

1. Indicate how you would like to be notified. Select one:

   • E-mail all alerts and notices (the default)
   • E-mail only creation notice
   • No e-mail (RSS only) - if you select this option, the remaining E-mail Properties will be hidden (because they are not necessary for RSS).

2. Enter your E-mail Address. If you are entering multiple e-mail addresses, place a semicolon between each e-mail address.

3. Hide addresses from recipients - if you select this option, the e-mail addresses you enter will be placed into the BCC (Blind Copy) field of the e-mail, rather than the "To" field.

4. In the Subject field, enter a brief explanation that will appear in the subject line of the Alert e-mail.

5. Title - you can optionally enter a title for the e-mail. The default value for the Title field is: EBSCOhost Alert Notification.

6. E-mail [From] address - Defaults to: EPAlerts@EPNET.COM. You can enter a different "From" e-mail address if desired.

7. Select the E-mail format to use: Plain Text or HTML.

8. To have your search string included with your results, mark the Include query string in results checkbox. To include the alert frequency, mark the frequency checkbox.

9. When you have finished making changes, click the Save button.

Related terms: alert, EBSCO Discovery Service, EDS

Editing a Search Alert

To edit a search alert:

1. From the Advanced Search Screen, click on the Search History link below the Find field.

2. Click the Retrieve Alerts link.

3. Sign in to My EBSCOhost.

4. Click the Search Alerts link.

5. Locate the alert you want to edit.

6. Click on the Edit Alert link to access the Save Alert page.

7. Edit the alert.

8. Click Save.

Note: If you would like to edit the search terms or limiters/expanders of your alert, click the Edit link in the Search History box at the bottom of the alert. 

Deleting a Search Alert

You can delete your Alert by logging in to your My EBSCOhost personal folder (once you are logged in to EBSCOhost).

To delete an alert:

1. Click the Sign in link in the upper left corner of the screen.

2. Click the Folder link.

3. Your folder contents display, with a menu located on the left-hand column.

4. Click Search Alerts.

5. Mark the check box for each alert you would like to delete.

6. Click the Delete Items button. The selected items are removed from the folder.

Viewing a Search Alert

EBSCOhost alerts are set to display the first 100 results. If your alert produces more than 100 results, and you want to view the remaining results, there are two ways to view all results from your alerts.

Click on the persistent link in the alert email to view all available results or view them by using the Retrieve Alerts feature in EBSCOhost.

To view all results from an alert in EBSCOhost:

1. From the Advanced Search Screen, click the Search History link.

2. Click the Retrieve Alerts Link.

3. Sign in to your personal account.

4. Locate the alert you want to view, and click on the date of the alert. Your search results will appear.

Notes:

• If you do not remember your My EBSCOhost login values, click Sign in and select either I forgot my password or I forgot my user name and passwordfor assistance.

• If you are receiving a search alert that someone else has set up for you, only the creator of an alert can stop the alert from being sent.

• For additional assistance, Contact EBSCO's Technical Support Department.