MATC Libraries

HOW TO FIND AN ARTICLE

The library databases offer the benefit of up-to-the-minute currency, strong representation across multiple subject areas and depth that you cannot get from other information sources like Yahoo! or Google.

A. To search for articles, first open Netscape or Internet Explorer.

B. Then type the Library website address http://library.matc.edu/ in the “Address” box near the top. At the Library Home Page, click on “Articles and Full-Text Resources.”

C. To search for an article by subject, use the first drop down menu (Figure 1) and choose the area that most closely resembles your search topic.

D. The following screen will appear (Figure 2), with information about each database in the subject area along with a link directly to the database.

NOTE: If you are accessing databases from home or work, you may be prompted for a username or password to identify yourself as an MATC student or faculty member. See the handout “Accessing Library Materials from Home” for more information.

E. Each database may be slightly different, but the structure of the search screens are similar. To enter a basic search by keyword, type in your terms in the textbox (see Figure 3).

If you are interested in only viewing articles with full content available directly from the screen, scan the limit features below and select the “Full-text only” checkbox. Your search results will only display those articles with full content.

Click on the Search button.

Deciphering Your Search Results

F. Each database is different in the way it conveys information through search results. However, they all give indications as to how much of the article is available on the screen. There are generally three display options for a given article. These are Citation/Abstract, which gives brief summary information about an article, Full-Text which offers the full content of the article, and PDF Files (Portable Document Format) which contain scanned images of the original articles and can be viewed through Acrobat Reader.

G. To view an article, simply click once on the title, which is normally underlined and highlighted in blue (see Figure 4).

H. All three of our major database collections--EBSCOhost, InfoTrac and Proquest (Figure 5)--offer the same three output options.

You can choose to Print the article from the screen, in which case the article text will be reformatted to take up as much of the screen as possible.

You can also E-mail the article to yourself or another person. If you choose this option, you will be prompted to input an e-mail address and a subject line.

The Save Link function allows you to save a direct link to the article for use in Word documents or e-mail messages.

Advanced Searching

Guided Searches Every subscription database at MATC contains some type of Guided or Advanced search features that allow you to narrow your search if you know specifically what you are looking for. Every article in these databases is heavily indexed, which means you can search on terms within very specific fields, including article title, author, publication, subject and publication year.

Marked Lists All the MATC databases have a feature that allows you to create marked lists. Marked lists are made up of user-selected articles gathered together within the database. You choose those articles by checking the boxes to the left of each article citation. When you are finished and wish to view them, you select the menu option called Marked List where you can print them off or save them as an html file.

Citing Articles Once you have retrieved your article from the database, you need some way of citing the sources in your assignment or research paper to give credit to those authors whose ideas you are using. InfoTrac, EBSCOhost and Proquest all have help screens that contain information on citing articles in MLA and APA styles. You can also check the Library home page for information on citing electronic resources.