Library tutorial for Humanities and Social Sciences

Section 5. Database Examples

• Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
• Academic OneFile

Individual journal articles are not usually listed on the Library catalogue.
If you want to find journal articles on a particular topic, you need to search electronic databases. You can search using subject, keyword or author's name.
We do not necessarily hold all the journal titles and articles covered by these databases, but many have links to full text articles and some are linked to software that will search our catalogue to see if we have access to the journal in print or online.

Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre

The Australia/NZ Reference Centre combines Australian and New Zealand specific magazines, newspapers & newswires, reference books, and company information. This database provides local perspectives on current events, business, sports, and many other subjects.

Search in the Library Catalogue to locate this database.

Searching tips

• use boolean operators and, or between search terms
• use the truncation symbol (*) to search for different forms of a word - e.g. comput* finds computer or computing
• use quotation marks (") to search for terms as an exact phrase - e.g. "interest rates"
• use parentheses ( ) to group terms together - e.g. (automobile* or car* or transport*) and "sustainable development"

Entering your search

Your topic: "Discuss the effect of climate change on the Australian economy." would look something like this:

("climate change" or "global warming") and Australia* and econom*

Display of citations

This is an example of how the first screen of the results of the search will display.
(Note that if you were to do this exact search today,  the list of citations may not exactly match this list, because the database is being continually updated).

• Article title, author, journal title, date, volume (issue), page numbers, and how many pages long the article is.  More details are displayed by clicking on the article title.
• Articles are sorted by relevance but this can be changed to sort them by date order, or other options.
• Clicking on any of these links will give you access to the full text of the article online.
• Links on some records appear as Clicking this button will search for an electronic version of your record. If one is not found, you will see a link to check the library catalogue for your title. We may have the journal in print (hardcopy) format.

• If the Library does hold the journal as hardcopy, note both the call number and the range of the Libary's holdings.  You need to check that the volume/year that you want is included  in the volumes/years held by the Library. If it is, you can then go to the shelves and retrieve the volume which contains the journal article you are seeking.

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Refining your search

In Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre , there are a number of ways to either limit or expand/broaden  a search. Look at the left hand column headed by Narrow results by or Limit your results in the right hand column.

• Limiters include:  date of publication, or display only those articles with full-text
• Narrow results by: can be used to refine your seach by type of source, subject term, country, etc.
• Broaden your search: use the Search options in the right hand column to expand your search for related terms or searching within the full text

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Printing, saving and emailing citations

• Select a record for printing, downloading or emailing by clicking on the icon
• Selected items go into a folder in the right hand column -
• Go to Folder view and choose the Print, Save or Email button and follow the prompts
  

Academic OneFile

You can find this database under Quick Links on the Library homepage or click on the databases tab or search for it in the Library Catalogue.

This is a multidisciplinary database, providing full text for a large proportion of the 8000 journals covered.

You can search using the Basic Keyword search option but you may want to explore other search options such as Advanced Search by selecting that tab option.

Your essay topic might be: "Discuss the effect of globalisation on the economy of developing countries"?

You can also limit your search by publication date, full text results, peer reviewed articles, etc.

Display of citations

The list of results will have the following format ( the actual list of results changes almost daily as the database is continually updated).

The results list in Academic OneFile can also be viewed by type of publication - the default is Academic Journals - see the tabbed results at the top of the screen.

Other results features include:

• citation
• abstract
• full text options - Full text, Full text with graphics, PDF (result no. 9)
• Check for All Full Text Options - will check for links to this journal - if one is not found you are provided with a link to search the catalogue for a print copy of the journal.

N.B. Remember to check the Library's holdings to confirm that the year, volume, issue no. you need is held by the Library and write down the call number to find the journal on the shelves.

Refining the search

In Academic OneFile, there are  a number of ways to either refine or broaden a search.

• To limit/narrow the search - use the limit options at the bottom of the search screen, or you can narrow your search at the results screen by entering more terms (using the AND command)
• To broaden/expand the search - review your search terms and broaden them by removing phrase searches, or including more synonyms and related alternative terms (using the OR command).

Printing, saving and emailing results

• To  mark records which interest you, click in the 'Mark' box at the left of the record. To unmark, click again in that box.
• Click on Marked items at the top of the screen to view saved items.
• The results of your  search can then be printed, emailed, or saved.