how to use
How to Use Art Full Text, Biography Reference Bank, Book Review Digest Plus, Business FT, Education Full Text, Essay and General Literature Index, General Science FT, Humanities FT, OmniFile, Play Index, Readers' Guide FT and Social Science FT
This search guide was originally created by the Neumann Library Web Committee, University of Houston-Clear Lake and is used with their permission.
Connect to Databases to access these, and other, Library databases. Chose the databse you wish to use from the alphabetical list.
Art Full Text, Biography Reference Bank, Book Review Digest Plus, Business FT, Education Full Text, Essay and General Literature Index, General Science FT, Humanities FT, OmniFile, Play Index, Readers' Guide FT and Social Science FT are available in the Saint Mary's College Library via the World Wide Web. This guide gives you general searching tips (including marking, printing, downloading, and emailing) that apply to all these databases. Please note that on-line help is also available by using the Help button on the search screen within each database.
HOW TO SEARCH
Choices of search method are available as buttons at the left of the screen: Advanced Search: default search method, allows the greatest searching flexibility; see sample search form below. Basic Search: permits keyword, phrase, natural language, Boolean, and command syntax (<near>, <sentence>) searches. Browse: permits previewing and selecting search terms from various field lists (subject, author, journal name, etc.). Thesaurus: permits searching from controlled vocabulary subject terms, displayed hierarchically by concept/topic.
SEARCHING TIPS
Limiting functions may be used and include: limit by date, full text, peer reviewed articles, and document type.
Boolean operators and command syntax may be used in Basic Search. Truncation symbols (* and ?) may be used in either Basic or Advanced Search.
| and | stadiums and marketing | finds both words in the same record, ranked for relevance |
| or | hyperactivity or adhd | finds records containing either or both terms, ranked for relevance |
| not | "attention span" not adhd | finds records containing attention span, but not adhd |
| <sentence> | family <sentence> therapy | finds records with both words in the same sentence |
| <near/n> | safety <near/5> training | finds records with the specified words within 5 words of each other (n = an integer between 1 and 1024) |
| " " | "fe3 co 12" | finds specified phrase, i.e., chemical formula Fe3(CO)12 |
| " " | "condition" | finds exact single term condition, as opposed to conditions, conditioner, conditioning, etc. |
| * | electric* | finds electric, electrical, electricity, etc. |
| * | colo*r | finds color or colour (* may be used for zero or more characters) |
| ? | ?atherine deneuve | finds Catherine Deneuve (? stands for a single alphanumeric character and may be used as many times as needed, i.e., catherine d?n??ve) |
THESAURUS SEARCH
You may improve your search results by using official subject headings. Click the Thesaurus button on the left of the screen, enter your subject term in the search box, and click Start.
VIEWING AND MARKING RECORDS
PRINTING, DOWNLOADING, AND EMAILING RECORDS
To download, you will need an IBM-formatted disk. Place the disk in Drive A. Click the Save radio button under Destination, make other selections, and then click Start. When your records display as desired, select Save as from the File Menu of the browser. Enter the filename, and set the Save as type to .txt. Be sure to direct the download to Drive A, and then click Save. Note: You must be using a PC with MS Word or MS Excel to save in those formats.
