EBSCO for Science Research

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The Intelligent Alternative
Research on Politics in America
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This tutorial will cover the basics in using
the online resources at Holman Library

• Major Topics Covered
• WebFeat
• Database List
• Political Science Resources
• APSA Style
• Tutorials

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Holman Library WebPages act as an Information
Gateway

• Menu to resources and services
• Subscriptions to over 60 electronic databases
• Most full text resources
• Proxy server for off campus access
• Databases available 24 / 7
• Guides to resources by division, major program
• Online forms for requesting reference help,
  interlibrary loan, instruction other services

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Off Campus Access

• Must have a McKendree username and password to
  access Library resources
• Contact 537-6445 or helpdesk_at_mckendree.edu with
  support webpages at http//support.mckendree.edu
  
• Proxy server
• Authenticates McKendree affiliation
• Compliance with licensing agreements
• Allows access from anywhere on the web

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Research Process for Locating Quality Journal
Articles

• Select a topic
• Choose a database
• EBSCO Databases
• FirstSearch Databases
• Lexis-Nexis Academic
• Construct a search
• Perform a search
• Broaden and/or narrow a topic
• Recognize the full text, citation options

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WebFeat, a federated search engine
Youll find it listed as Find Books Journal
Articles, the first link under Finding
Information. WebFeat searches multiple databases
at the same time.


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WebFeat Search Options
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WebFeat Search Results
Click on the links to retrieve the articles
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You may search individual databases one by one
or in groups without using WebFeat
Try the Database List
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Precise, definitive searches are best
accomplished within the individual database
search engines
For instance, select the EBSCO Databases for
business topics
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Academic Search Premier is your best source for
FT, scholarly research articles
But, you may select as many EBSCO databases as
you think appropriate
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EBSCO Database Descriptions

• Academic Search Premier - multi-disciplinary
  database with full text for nearly 4,650 serials,
  including full text for more than 3,600
  peer-reviewed titles along with citations and
  abstracts to another 5000 journals.
• Military Government Collection Designed to
  offer current news pertaining to all branches of
  the military and government, this database offers
  a thorough collection of periodicals, academic
  journals, and other content pertinent to the
  increasing needs of those sites. The Military
  Government Collection provides cover-to-cover
  full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals
  and indexing and abstracts for nearly 400
  titles. 
• SocINDEX with Full TextThe world's most
  comprehensive and highest quality sociology
  research database. The database features more
  than 1,660,000 records with subject headings from
  a 19,300 term sociological thesaurus designed by
  subject experts and expert lexicographers. The
  database contains full text for 344 "core"
  coverage journals dating back to 1895, and 129
  "priority" coverage journals. This database also
  includes full text for more than 700 books and
  monographs, and full text for 6,800 conference
  papers.

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Explore Your Search Options

• Review the buttons on the toolbar
• Basic and Advanced Search features
• Subject terms, thesauri and indexes
• Browse for subjects that begin with or contain
  the term to be searched
• Add the term to the search screen using the ADD
  button in the browse section
• Add additional terms if desired using the boolean
  operators in the pull down menu next to the add
  button
• Search by publication (a table of contents for
  browsing a journal or finding subject specific
  articles)
• Can put articles in folders for later evaluation
  and selection

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Political Science Search Model
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EBSCO Result List
Varieties of Full Text OptionsHTML, PDF
Linked Full Text
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Click on the title of an article to see the
abstract, the subject headings assigned, the
bibliographic information, and links to the full
text article (when available)
Search Terms are Highlighted
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Varieties of Full Text PDFs include EVERYTHING
the author intended
PDFs include all primary source charts,
graphs, tables, photographs and words
included by the writer
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Improve Your Search Techniques Boolean operators
and, or, not can
always be used to limit searches
And Combines search terms so that results
contain all of the search words.
i.e. war and congressional support
political science and
profession and women

• Or Combines search terms so that results
  contain at least one of the search words.
  i.e. adolescent or teenager
  GOP or Grand Old Party

• Not Excludes terms that are not desired.
  i.e. book not review experiment
  not human

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You can expand search results by using Wildcards
and Truncation
Truncation represented by the asterisk (). Use
the to replace the end of a word. For
example type poli to find citations containing
the words police, political, politics, etc.
Wildcards represented by the question mark (?).
Use the ? for unknown characters For example,
type wom?n to find citations containing woman,
women, or womyn.
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Each citation or article includesPrint, Email,
Export and Save Options
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Hooray for EBSCO!!!
Stylin the EASY Way
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Email Options are Secure Easy to Use
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If there is no full text link to an article,
what should I do?

• First, click on the McK button
• It will check our subscription lists
• Email Meseret Gebremichael (618)
  537-6950E-mail librarycirculation_at_mckendree.edu
  
• Request Articles
• Online forms or in-library paper forms
• Received via fax, electronically, by mail or
  courier
• Time needed varies / planning required
• Interlibrary Loan Services and Policies
• Interlibrary Loan Request Form
• Choose Borrow from another library
• Complete request form and submit
• Article will come to library and be sent to you
• Each request needs your name, contact information
  and the last date the article is useful to you

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Cite Your Sources Properly

• Let the reader know whose thoughts are being
  used to make the point and provide the
  appropriate documentation
• Avoid plagiarism
• Do not copy someone elses work. Its fraud!
• No person shall submit as his own to an
  instructor any work which contains ideas or
  materials taken from another without full
  acknowledgment of the author the source.
  McKendrees Academic Integrity Policy

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Bibliographic Style Aids - ASA
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Resources by Discipline Political Science
Represents some of the best sources of
information from the Librarys subscription
services the Internet
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Tutorials
Tutorials are available any time and cover almost
every one of our databases
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• Please visit, call or email

• Debbie Houk 537-6951
• Interim Director
• Bill Harroff 537-6952
• Reference Information Technologies Librarian
• Meseret Gebremichael 537-6950
• Public Services Librarian
• Sandy Moody 537-6953
• Librarian