**The Locker Box**

Here are tips for better search results in databases. This usage works on most databases, but check 'Help' sections for supported search syntax. 

Boolean: (using operators: and, or, not) 

mother and father searches for occurrences of both words within scope defined.

mother or father searches for one or all, but both are not required.

mother not father searches for occurrences of the word ‘mother’ without use of the word ‘father.’

(mother not father) and god searches for occurrences of the word ‘mother’ without use of the word ‘father,’ then also requires the word ‘god.’

Truncation: 

art* searches for art, arts, artistic, artful, etc.

Wildcard: 

m?n searches for man and men. 

Google Scholar is a time-saving, scholarly search interface accessible from within the Google interface. With Google Scholar, you can access peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book sections.  For literature searching, specialized databases have more functionality and access more comprehensive results, but Google Scholar is a good tool to use for a search for a known item.

You can configure Google Scholar to:

• Display a link to NYU options for the full-text of an article
• Export your citations to RefWorks or EndNote

Here's how to display NYU links:

1. Open scholar.google.com
2. Go to the left screen, 3 bars, "Settings" 
3. Click on menu item, "Library Links"
4. Type in: NYU
5. From the results, put a check mark next to "New York University Libraries-GetIt at NYU"
6. Click on Save to save preferences.

The next time you search scholar.google.com, the GetIt at NYU option will be available next to accessible article citations.

Here's how to change settings for Bibliography manager:

1. Open scholar.google.com
2. Go to the left screen, 3 bars, "Settings" 
3. In the Search Results, go to Bibliography Manager
4. Select Show Links  to import citation into: (your choice of bibliography manager, BibTex, Refworks, Endnote, etc.)
5. Click on Save to save preferences.

Locating the full text of an article:

• From a database citation, look for a link to "full text" or an NYU icon: 

  

  

  

  The "get-it" link will display options for the full text if available via NYU's electronic subscriptions. 

• If the journal title (or year of publication) is not available electronically, use the link to search the Library Catalog to locate a hard copy.

• If the journal title (or year of publication) is not available in the Catalog click on the link to Interlibrary loan to order.

The peer-review process is the system by which much scholarly work is judged for quality and strength. Here is a great video created by the North Carolina State University Library that lays out the basics of peer review.

Tips for Searching Web of Science (WOS):

• WOS works by linking articles through their bibliographies.  So, if you can only find one or two good articles on your topic in another database (like PubMed), try looking those articles up in WOS.  You'll likely find several other articles just by following WOS's bibliography trail.
  
  
• WOS has tools that will allow you to get the "lay of the land" for your topic of interest.  Just run a search on your topic and then use the "analyze" feature on the right side of your results screen.  You can see which scientists publish most on your topic, which institutions have done the most research on the topic, and which years saw the most published research on your topic.

How to Begin a Search

• Phrase information needed in the form of a question
• Decide what kind of information you're looking for
  • Scholarly journals
  • Popular periodicals such as New York Times
  • Textbooks
• Decide how much you're looking for. Are you looking for several recent articles, or writing a paper and need background information from textbooks plus journal articles?

Once you've answered these questions you're ready to locate books or select a database to locate journal articles.

***Keep in mind that you will use Bobcat's "Books and More" tab to locate TITLES of books, journals, and videotapes.

To locate THE ARTICLES themselves you will need to find a citation in an index, either by using Bobcat's "Article's & Databases" tab or following the link in BobCat. 

For a more detailed description of how to develop a search strategy, go to:
http://wally.rit.edu/depts/ref/instruction/tutorial/searchstrategy.html.

Step One: Search a General Article Database

1. Go to library.nyu.edu
2. Click on Articles via Databases
3. Enter your search terms in the search box; this search box will search two of our general all-purpose article databases: Proquest and Wilson OmniFile. (These databases cover all subject areas and a variety of materials: newspapers, popular magazines, journals, etc.)

Step Two: Search a Subject-Specific/Academic Article Databases

1. Go to library.nyu.edu
2. Click on Articles via Databases
3. You'll see a list of subjects; select the subject area that most closely fits your needs
4. Within a specific subject, you'll see a prioritized list of recommended article databases and tools for searching. These databases tend to be more academic in nature and very subject-focused.

1. Go to library.nyu.edu
2. Click on Ejournals/Ebooks
3. Search for your journal/newspaper/magazine title. This will search across all of our databases to see if we have the journal online.
4. You'll see a red/white popup window with options for electronic access. Click on the option that fits the date/volume that you need.
5. If we do not have the journal online, you'll often see an option to Find it In BobCat; this allows you to search BobCat to see if we own the journal in hardcopy.

BobCat

To find books at Bobst, search BobCat, our library catalog.

A few steps:

1. Check the status of an item.  Generally, Available means that the copy is in the library and can be checked out (excluding Reference materials).
2. Note the call number, not the ISBN number.  The call number (ex. HT261.4.T5 1998) is what you use to locate the book.
3. Consult the directory in the elevator to figure out which floor your item is on.

Getting Started With Boolean

Using Boolean operators -- AND, OR, NOT -- is a great way to further refine your searches.

Boolean Operator	Search Example	Retrieves	Venn Diagram
AND A good way to limit/refine your search. Decreases your results.	rivers AND salinity	Retrieves articles that contain both the words river and salinity.
OR A good way to expand your search. Useful if you have synonyms that you would like to search for. Increases your results.	fruit OR vegetables	Returns articles that contain either the word fruits or vegetables.
NOT A good way to limit your search. Allows you to exclude terms from your search results.	fruit NOT apples	Returns articles that contain the word fruits but do not contain the word apples.

Advanced Boolean: Putting It All Together

In the above examples, we showed the use of Boolean operators with 2 search terms; however, you can join any number of terms with Boolean operators.

Parentheses!

In the examples below, you'll notice that we use parentheses to group search terms and operators. The parentheses tell the search engine how to read your search statement. Remember when you learned about order of operations in math and using parentheses? Same concept.

Search Example	Retrieves	Venn Diagram
Europe AND dairy products AND export	Articles that contain all of the following words: dairy products, Europe, and export.
canoeing AND (kayaking OR sculling)	Articles that contain the both of the words canoeing and sculling; also brings back articles that contain both of the words canoeing and kayaking.
South America AND (puma OR panther) NOT Brazil	Articles that contain the terms South America and Puma; articles that contain the terms South America and Panther. Will not bring back articles with the term Brazil.

Retrieving too many articles?  Below are ways to narrow your search:

• View the online thesaurus. Choose a narrower, more specific term for your topic, for example:
  
  
  • in PubMed, search the MeSH thesaurus on infection and notice narrower MeSH terms such as  catheter-related infections [MeSH]
    
    
  • In PsycINFO, a thesaurus search on Sleep reveals that narrower terms under Sleep include Napping, NREM Sleep, REM Sleep
    
    
  • In CINAHL, a search in the CINAHL Headings thesaurus reveals Education, Nursing as a broad term, with narrower headings for  Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate  OR  Education, Nursing, Graduate

• Apply LIMITS. Use the feature that allows you to edit or limit search results:

• LIMIT by article type/publication type, by level of evidence (link to screenshots on limiting)

• Are you looking for an overview of a topic?  "Review" articles synthesize a review of the literature that an author conducts at a certain point in time.  Quality review articles may provide a useful overview and starting point.
  
  
• LIMIT by Age group if appropriate.
  
  
•  LIMIT results by year of publication, language, etc.

• Limit by using tools that apply preformulated filters to search topics, for example:

o       PubMed Clinical Queries http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pubmedutils/clinical (PubMed research methodology filters are explained here)

o       CINAHL Clinical Queries (click on “Show More, Search Options, to locate limits for clinical queries filters)

• Pre-evaluated, pre-synthesized sources (including “systematic reviews”) aggregate the best evidence for a given topic.  They may appraise the quality of studies and often make recommendations for practice.  Link to: the evidence pyramid and look at the categories of Systematic Reviews, Critically Appraised Topics, Critically Appraised Articles.
  
  

Follow these steps to set your Scholar Preferences so that you can connect to the full-text of articles listed in Google Scholar that the NYU Libraries provides access to.

Step 1: Go to http://scholar.google.com and select “Scholar Preferences.”

Step 2: Choose “New York University Libraries – Get at NYU” in “Library Links.”

Step 3: Click “Save Preferences”

Now, “Get at NYU” link will appear when you search Google Scholar.

Step 4 (Optional): Choose a Bibliographic Manager

You can further customize Scholar Preferences to interface with a bibliographic management tool of your choice (currently RefWorks and EndNote). Choose the tool to "show links to import citations" and click "Save Preferences." Refer to our guides on RefWoks and EndNote if you're not yet using a bibliographic management tool.

Now, you will see an "Import into RefWorks" link under each search result.   

Helpful Hints for Finding ebooks at NYU

• The Books & More tab holds many, but not all, of the ebooks to which NYU has access.  Look to the Suggested ebook Databases list below for suggestions on where to find other ebooks we have access to.
• The ISBN number for an ebook does not coincide with the ISBN for the hard copy.  Therefore it is often better to search by title and publisher using the Full Text Online limiter to find the ebook within the results.
• Commercially published editions of ebooks are much less likely to be found in our database subscriptions than those published by academic presses.  Examples of commercial publishers are Penguin, Harper Collins, Macmillan and McGraw-Hill.  Examples of academic presses are Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Yale University Press, etc…
• ebooks published by a university press are more likely to be found on databases run by those presses.  See the Publisher Specific Databases section below.

Some Suggested ebook Databases links have been provided below, all of which can also be found in Databases A-Z.   [Further recommendations can also be found within the eBooks research guide.]

When using article databases, remember there are always three stages in your workflow (the "three Ds"):

1. Discovery: Do (and redo!) your searching, using varying terms and combining using the Boolean operators "AND, OR, NOT" to get good results. Your first search is not your best search, but rather an opportunity to learn how to immediately do a better search
2. Delivery: For items that you like, select the link to the fulltext if available, or click on the button to see if we own the item. If you want to keep this item, either save it to your own computer, email it to yourself, or print it.
3. Database it: Keep the "meta-information" about all that good resources you found for your records and to make your bibliographies. You will find yourself returning to resources so having a system in place will save you time and aggravation later. The NYU Libraries offer a number of tools to our users to help with this, in particular a tool called RefWorks, which you can learn about here.

• Start your research early. 
• Read actively and critically.
• Write as you go. 
• Think about your sources and evaluate them thoroughly.
• Ask your librarian for help navigating collections.
• Document your sources carefully.
• Use reference and secondary sources for background information and to situate your argument within a scholarly conversation.