Embedded Files
This is a general guide to using a database, with focus on those provided through NOVELNY (New York Online Electronic Library).
For today's quick intro guide, I'm going to use Gale Academic One File as my example of a database.
So your starting page for any database is often going to look just like this. The most important thing is to get right into the search and select "advanced search." I've starred it with a yellow star here. Advanced search will be an option for any and all database you use to narrow down your results to sources relevant to your paper, project, or assignment.
Let's dive into "Advanced Search" and look at your options!
At first glance, there are a lot of customizable options. You have the ability to select multiple search terms. When available, you should always select "full text documents." Gale has helpfully already selected it for you. A full text document is important so that you get more information than a summary or an abstract and can actually read your potential source.
The date selection fields help you narrow down your results to be the most relevant to your research. I would recommend not consulting sources significantly older than 5 years old, especially for social sciences and science subjects where contemporary data is important.
Then you have some quick additional options: document type, publication title, publication subject, and Lexile measure. You can leave these un-customized unless you have already determined a very narrow scope for your research.
Let's quickly look at the top part where you can insert your own search terms:
The advanced search offers you three search terms, and they can be linked by "and" (shown in the screenshot) as well as "or" and "not." For searches you want to include all of your terms, "and" is the option to select. "Or" is a good choice if you're flexible about your results, and "not" helps keep out results including a term you do not want featured in your source.
Beneath "keyword" there are many options to modify the search field. "Subject" might be the other term I recommend for a beginning inquiry. Searching within the "Entire Document" might be helpful for you to confirm the term relating to your research is present within the generated results.
For a quick and easy search example, I chose to search "cats" as a keyword. This is my result page:
As you can see, my results occur in academic journals, magazines, books, news, images, and videos. I am also given the option to filter my results based off publication date, subjects, document type, publication title, Lexile measure, and search within. Depending on my project, paper, or assignment, I will refine the results further.
At this stage of research, you can modify your advanced search by selection revise search to further customize your results. Going through thousands of entries is more work for you as a researcher and writer, so your goal is to always generate the most specific and relevant results you can.
I hope this preliminary guide helps you on your database searching! As always please let me (librarian) know if you want to talk about your projects and research. I am happy to help you find the best database and sources for you.
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