SOCIOLOGY 421: DATABASE SEARCHING

1
SOCIOLOGY 421DATABASE SEARCHING JOURNAL ACCESS

• October 1, 2007
• Grant Kayler, UofA Libraries
• grant.kayler_at_ualberta.ca

2
Getting Started - essentials

• Campus Computing ID (CCID) PASSWORD
• lab in-library authentication
• off-campus access to library (EZproxy)
• ONECard bar code and PIN
• library card, holds/requests, my account
• photocopy/printing card (add value)

3
Searching Tips

• Boolean Searches
• and punishment and culture
• Narrows search
• or jail or prison
• Broadens search (i.e. similar meaning)
• Phrase Searches
• gun control
• sometimes gun control

4
Searching Tipsincrease the number of hits

• Truncation (at end of term)
• punish punish or punishment or punished etc.
  (symbol varies, e.g. ! ? check search tips or
  help)
• Library catalogue uses ?
• Wildcards (within term)
• wom?n women or woman

5
Searching TipsA bit more complex

• Nesting combine and and or in a single
  search, e.g. (punish or prison) and
  (multicultural or divers)
• Proximity terms near each other, e.g. women
  within 5 prison (again, varies with database
  (e.g. N5) check tips/help)

6
Scholarly or Academic Journals

• Peer review / refereed
• process of reviewing an author's scholarly work,
  research, or ideas by others who are experts in
  the same field editorial boards, blind review
  process
• Some databases let you limit your search to
  articles in peer reviewed journals, e.g. SocINDEX
  with Full Text, Sociological Collection, Social
  Sciences Full Text, CBCA
• Ulrichs International Periodical Directory (a
  database) can be used to determine if a journal
  is scholarly/peer reviewed

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
CATALOGUE vs DATABASES

• Catalogue
• Lists books, journals/periodicals, videos,
  newspapers, etc. OWNED by NEOS libraries (UofA is
  a NEOS library) plus call number and library
  locations
• Provides title of periodical (e.g. American
  Journal of Sociology) but not the titles of
  individual articles in the periodical
• If periodical is available electronically,
  catalogue will provide a link to the electronic
  form, e.g. American Journal of Sociology

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
CATALOGUE vs. DATABASES

• DATABASES
• provide access to periodical articles (and
  chapters, dissertations, books)
• provide more information about the contents of a
  journal or book than library catalogue
• May also provide full text of the article, or
  links to the full text in other sources
• search by title of the article, author, subject
  keywords, etc.
• Remember articles listed are not necessarily
  owned by the NEOS/UA libraries may need to
  obtain through Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

18
DATABASES

• Citation or citation abstract only
• e.g. Sociological Abstracts, Social Science
  Citation Index
• Get It links to the full text
  if available in another database, or to print
  sources, e.g. the Libraries Catalogue,
  Interlibrary Loan, etc.
• Full-text databases (pdf or html)
• Databases that contain the full-text of some or
  all of the articles, e.g. SocINDEX with Full
  Text, Sociological Collection, SAGE Full Text,
  Social Sciences Full Text

19

• Web-based citation management, access from
  anywhere
• Create a database of references that you build as
  you go (e.g. import directly from database)
• organize into individual folders for specific
  assignments, etc.
• Pull references from database/folders to create
  bibliography for specific assignments, in proper
  format (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.)
• Insert in-text references from folder/database as
  you write your paper

20
(No Transcript)
21
KEY DATABASES FOR SOCIOLOGY

• Sociological Abstracts
• Social Sciences Full Text
• Sage Full Text
• Social Science Citation Index (part of Web of
  Science, permits cited ref searching)
• CBCA Reference