Electronic Indexes to Journal Articles, Online Journals, and Full-Text Journal Articles

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The following information describes how to use electronic resources at the Sterling C. Evans Library at Texas A&M University.

These resources can be accessed on the campus network, via A&M modems, through other Internet Service Providers (given that one's email alias and password for the A&M PH or Phonebook application are available. See proxy server info at above address. Cable modem access is not guaranteed (as far as I know) though I think that people have said that they have accessed these resources through cable modems and the proxy server.)

How much is available?

How does one use the Electronic Resources site?

1. Very general subject access (like 10-12 subjects such as "Engineering and Computer Science")
2. First letter of the Electronic Index title or Online Journal title (see 3. b.)
3. Keyword primarily from the words in the Index titles or Online Journal titles.
   There are several potentially unexpected limits to the keyword access.
   1. When searching for an article having to do with "the best day of summer" from Time Magazine none of the words (from the subject or journal) can be used (from the resources site) to find the item. (Partly I'm assuming that Time is one of thousands of journals that we don't have licensed online.) Instead, one should search for an Electronic Index to use to search for the item. The database called Periodical Abstracts could have the reference or may even have the full text.
   2. The search has an option (that follows the three main access options) of searching Electronic Indexes, Online Journals, or both. The Electronic Indexes index more journals than the licensed online journals; however, those journal names cannot be used as keywords to find the appropriate Electronic Index or to find the journal (through the keyword search)
   3. In my opinion, the keyword access that is available for searching for Electronic Indexes is ideally suited to finding an Electronic Index when one knows the name of the Index. For example, FirstSearch, ABI, Insite, Sociofile, and ERIC.

Strategies

1. Ask Reference
2. Look through the general subject listings (1 in How to use the Electronic Resources site) and try to select what seems relevant. (I'm pretty sure that it is not easy to do that. I find that I don't even know about significant databases from time to time and I work in the immediate reference environment, so how can a person evaluate a database simply through the name of the database?)
3. The links, Index names, and recommendations from the following unofficial reference form may be useful. http://library.tamu.edu/hss/test/refnote.html

Goal--find information about a particular subject
(Not necessarily in order)

1. Search the Library Book Catalog (LibCat) http://libcat.tamu.edu (LibCat replaces NOTIS and is mainly (maybe only) available for public searching through the WWW.)
2. Search for journal articles
   1. Find an electronic index that includes the subject (see Find the name of an appropriate electronic index)
   2. Use bibliographic references from school books or other books or articles. (Use LibCat to search for Library holdings and Internet availability or Electronic Resources for online journals. The same Internet resources may be found in LibCat or Electronic Resources. I think that the Internet addresses *should be* the same; however, there may be a benefit of checking both.)
   3. Use printed indexes
   4. Review related journals
3. Search the Internet
4. Use Reference books

A word about searching with Boolean AND and OR

Main point--AND limits found items

AND in the search means that the word "apples" and the word "oranges" must be included in the data of all found items. No item can include only one of the words. Possible significance--adding an AND word makes the search result in fewer items or, at most, in the same number of items. (That's different than the general experience of getting one thing AND getting another thing where AND is adding. Boolean AND adds to the requirements for each item. Another way of saying it is that AND adds to what will be found within each item. At the same time it tends to reduce the total number of items.)

apples or oranges

Main point--OR adds to found items

OR in the search means that at least one of these words must appear in the found items. Possible significance--adding an OR word adds to the search results or, at least, results in the same number of items. (That's different than the general experience of an OR speech statement resulting in one item. When adding an OR word, what is added to search results are new items that did not have the other word yet do have the OR word. The parallel with speech is that in experience we get one of the OR items; in a search, it is the individual record that is in accordance with the speech experience; the individual records each have on of the OR items (or more than one OR item).

Last revised 2-6-2000 by JPF