This is a tutorial on finding journal articles through OCLCs First Search. You can also find books i

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First Search

• This is a tutorial on finding journal articles
  through OCLCs First Search. You can also find
  books in their WorldCat database.
• Originally developed by Susan Cable of Grand
  Canyon University (Phoenix, Arizona), this
  tutorial is adapted with permission for use at
  William Carey International University.
• Other schools wishing to adapt this tutorial for
  non-commercial use may do so.
• (Click on the screen to proceed.)

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First Search
First Steps

• Signing On
• From the library web homepage, click on either
  Find Articles or the web address below First
  Search Electronic Journals.
• Enter your authorization number and password.
  Please do not give your password to anyone else.
• Click on Start.
• Learning What Is Available
• Click on the word Databases on the gray tab.
• Here is a list of databases indexing many
  academic journals and magazines which you may
  search for information. Each has a description of
  the kinds of articles it covers. Only if a
  database is full text will you be able to read
  the article on your computer.

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WCIUs Full-Text Databases

• ATLAS Full-text articles on religion and
  theology
• WilsonSelectPlus Full-text articles in science,
  humanities, education, and business
• ArticleFirst Full-text articles from general
  journals
• We are exploring more full-text databases at this
  time, although they may be under a different
  system.

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Other Popular Databases

• ATLA Religion Religious and theological
  literature for students and faculty
• Dissertations Dissertations and theses from
  institutions in North America and Europe
• Ebooks Online electronic books available
  through libraries worldwide
• ECO Scholarly journals. To see a list of titles
  which this database covers, click on Browse
  Journal Titles following the description. Click
  on the down arrow to the right of All
  Publishers Collections in the white box to see a
  list of publishers. Click on the publisher you
  want. Then click on the button that says,
  Browse Journal Titles. Or click on one of the
  letters in the alphabetical list. To return to
  the prior page, at the top of the screen click on
  the large arrow pointing to the left.
• (continued)

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Other Popular Databases

• PapersFirst Papers presented at conferences
  worldwide
• PerAbs Article abstracts from general and
  academic journals
• Proceedings Worldwide conference proceedings
• SIRSResearcher Social, scientific, economic,
  and political issues worldwide
• World Almanac Funk Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
  and four almanacs
• WorldCat Books and other materials in libraries
  worldwide
• WorldCatDissertations All dissertations and
  theses available in WorldCat

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Subject Areas Databases to Use

• International Studies All of the preceding
  databases, plus AltPressIndex, AltPressIndexArchiv
  e, BusDateline, ClasePeriodica, CWI, EconLit,
  FactSearch, GEOBASE, and Worldscope
• Arts, Humanities, General Science
  ClasePeriodica, ECO, WilsonSelectPlus, and
  WorldCat
• General ArticleFirst, ECO, WilsonSelectPlus,
  and WorldCat
• Quick Reference WorldAlmanac and WorldCat
• Social Sciences ClasePeriodica, ECO,
  WilsonSelectPlus and WorldCat

• Subject Areas Databases to Use
• Arts Humanities ClasePeriodica, ECO,
  WilsonSelectPlus, WorldCat
• General ArticleFirst, ECO, WilsonSelectPlus,
  WorldCat
• Business Economics - ECO, WilsonSelectPlus,
  WorldCat
• Education ECO, ERIC, WorldCat
• General Science - ClasePeriodica, ECO,
  WilsonSelectPlus, WorldCat
• Medicine Health, Professional - ECO, Medline,
  WorldCat
• Public Affairs Law - ECO, GPO, WorldCat
• Quick Reference WorldAlmanac, WorldCat

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Basic Search for an Article
Click on the Home tab. Click in the white box
following Search for. Type in a key word (or
words) you want to find (such as anthropology).
More words will narrow your results. Click on
the drop-down arrow to the right of Select a
Topic or Database.
(Continued)
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Basic Search for an Article
From the drop-down list, click on the database
you want (such as ATLAS or WilsonSelect
Plus). Click on Search.
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Results General

• Check the records found.
• If this number is too large, limit your results
  by year, language, open-access, etc. by clicking
  on the Limit button.
• See related information by clicking on Related
  Subjects, Related Authors, or type of source
  material.
• To return to your initial list, click on back
  arrow at the top of your screen.

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Results Format of Articles

• Full-text articles (those you may read, not just
  indexed) are listed first.
• Within each category, the most recent article is
  listed first.
• GIF format takes longer to appear on your screen
  and longer to print than HTML (seen on your
  computer screen) or PDF (to be downloaded).

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Results Detailed Information

• For multiple articles, click in each box by the
  number for those articles in which you are
  interested. To remove the check mark, click in
  the box again.
• Mark a maximum of 100 records
• Move through the list by clicking the next and
  previous arrows or entering the page number.
  Page arrows are also shown at the bottom of the
  page.
• Click on Detailed Record or the title of one of
  the marked records to see its detailed
  information.

(Continued)
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Results Detailed Information

• For related articles, click on Advanced
  options. This allows you to easily search the
  source journal or the subjects listed under
  Descriptor.
• Or click on one of the descriptors for a list of
  those articles.
• Move through your marked records by clicking on
  the next or previous arrows.

(Continued)
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Results Detailed Information

• Return to your list of marked records by clicking
  on the Marked Records tab again.
• Or return to the full list by clicking on List
  of Records. (If it does not return to the
  beginning of the list, click on the previous
  arrow.)

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Results WCIU Owned

• WILLIAM CAREY INT UNIV means Latourette Library
  holds this title. Our periodical titles are not
  currently cataloged. This will appear mainly in
  WorldCat which records our electronically
  cataloged books.

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Results Options

• You may email, export to a file, or print your
  results.
• You may not save records within FirstSearch, as
  this option is not currently open to WCIU.
• The Options link allows you to change the
  number of records shown on each page, to
  highlight the terms, change color, etc. Click the
  Set or Set and Save button to save any new
  settings.

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Another Search

• Click on the Searching tab.
• This screen gives more options for entering
  search information.
• Some databases have indexing and some full-text
  articles. If you only want full-text articles
  (not including indexed articles), click in the
  Limit to Full text box.

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Searching Multiple Databases
From Home enter your keywords into the Search
for box, but do not select a database. Click on
Search. A screen will appear showing databases
containing your subject. Mark the desired
databases, then click on Select. Add limiters
to the next screen and click Search.
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Advanced Search

• Different ways to access Advanced Search
• (1) From the Home or Basic Search screen,
  select your database from the Jump to Advanced
  Search drop-down menu.
• (2) Click on the Searching tab. When you see
  that screen, click on Advanced Search or
  Expert Search.

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Advanced Search Limiters

• Boolean operators
• Finds AND, OR, or NOT in left-to-right order
  unless parentheses are used
• Finds two words with only a space between them
  as if AND was used (charter and schools)
• Limit years, language, document type, full text,
  or journals held by Latourette Library (Library
  code WC1). Our print journals are not yet
  cataloged.
• Peer Reviewed journals are especially good for
  academic research.
• Rank by relevance, date or no ranking

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Advanced Search More Info

• Putting quotations marks around phrases limits
  results by finding an exact phrase.
• W (with) search for records containing both
  terms with no words in between (aluminum w
  wiring)
• (aluminum w2 wiring) finds aluminum and then
  wiring with no more than two other words between
  them
• N (near) search for records containing both
  terms, in any order, with no words between them
• (aluminum n wiring)
• (aluminum N3 wiring) finds aluminum and wiring
  with either word appearing first and with no more
  than three other words between them

(Continued)
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Advanced Search More Info

• Plurals, truncation and wildcards
• Plurals Add plus sign (Example mammal finds
  mammal and mammals)
• Truncation asterisk (Example instruction
  finds instruction, instructions, and
  instructional)
• Wildcards pound sign replaces a single
  character (Example acent finds accent and
  ascent)
• question mark ? alone or with number
  represents from 0 to 9 characters (Example
  music? Finds music, musical, musically, and
  musician)
• Stopwords DO NOT USE common words with little
  informational value
• a, an, are, as, at, be, but, by, for, from, had,
  have, he, in, her, his, is, it, of, on, that,
  the, this, to was, which, with, you

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Obtaining an Indexed-Only Article
For WCIU students, mentors, faculty, or staff
members, if there is an article you want to read
but which is not available to you, email
library_at_wciu.edu. Go to the Detailed Record of
the article you want. Copy the exact title and
other information from the FirstSearch screen
into the email. We will order the article
through Inter-Library Loan.
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Return to Library Home Page

• To return to Latourette Librarys home page,
  click on the back arrow at the top of your window.