Recommended Instructions for Module 1:
1. Read Module 1 Summary and Objectives
2. Watch embedded YouTube tutorial below and/or go to Module 1's subpage: Module 1 Screenshot walkthrough.
3. Go to bottom of page to Practice area.
Module 1 Summary
Module 1 is the very basics of a database search for periodicals and eBooks. (Periodicals are magazines, newspapers, and journals.) Databases let you find out which periodical issues have articles on a specific topic, and sometimes even provide the full text of the article as well, so you don't have to find a print copy of the magazine, journal, or newspaper. Some databases, like Academic Search Premier, are multi-disciplinary databases and cover all topics. Other databases are topic- or format-specific, and focus on one field of study, like medicine, or a specific format, like newspapers. Some examples:
Business Source Premier, a business database
ERIC, an education database
GreenFILE, an environmental database
Medline, a medical database
Newsource, a newspaper database
Most of the time, your instructors will tell you to use EBSCOhost to look for magazine and journal articles, so that is the collection of databases I will use for these walkthroughs. Keep in mind, however, that many of the same features and techniques I'm showing you work for almost all databases, so if you want to search our Gale resources, you can use what you've learned for EBSCO and apply it to Gale.
Module 1 Objectives:
1. Know how to get to EBSCOhost databases
2. Understand the concept of subject-specific databases.
3. Demonstrate how to do a simple search.
YouTube video settings--maximize your tutorial experience
For Closed Captioning, please click CC. These are HD recordings--please change 480p to 1080p. For larger screen, click the far right corner.
Module 1 Video Tutorial: Simple Search
Further Practice:
Want some practice? Try this case scenario:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: to do a search for articles on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This is your chance to practice doing a real search using what you’ve learned. Think carefully about your database choices and your search term, and remember what format you’re looking for (articles, not books).
To ponder: What did you come up with? Were your results relevant and on-target, or did you get something weird and completely off-topic? If so, where do you think you went wrong?