Finding and Citing Articles from 36 Database PowerSearch: A Step-by-Step Approach

Dr. Jun Wang

San Joaquin Delta College

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Expected Learning Outcomes

• Be able to locate 36 Database PowerSearch from Delta College Library web page

• Be able to conduct a Subject Guide Search with a selected topic and retrieve needed information

• Be able to conduct an effective Basic Search with keywords from a selected topic and retrieve needed information

• Be able to evaluate retrieved information and limit your search to professional, research articles from journals

• Be able to print, e-mail, and cite the retrieved sources

Steps:

1. Go to the library web site and click on Online Databases

2. Click on the database

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Steps:1. Select Subject Guide Search2. Enter a topic3. Limit your search results to documents with full text4. Click on Search

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Step:Look for subheadingsunder the main subject.

Step:Select a subheading.

Click on the selected folder

Click on the article title or Full-text linkto read the

article.

Steps:1. Identify a pertinent article2. Click on Citation Tools to display the citation

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Conduct a Basic Search

Steps:1. Click on Basic Search2. Enter the keywords and use Boolean logic operators to narrow or broaden your

Search (AND is used to narrow the search, and OR and NOT are used to narrow the search)3. Select Keyword search

4. Click on Search

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Steps:1. Select a folder2. Click on the title or the

Full-text link to displaythe article

Notes:1. The number

(8.4) right after the journal title,Eduction Next, refers to Volume8, Issue 4.

2. The number (8)in parenthesis after the page number refers tothe number of pages in its original printpublication.

Steps:1. View the article and understand its elements for citation2. Click on Citation Tools to see the citation

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Steps:1. Select an appropriate style2. Click on Save3. Open the citation document with the default browser

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Important Note:

For the most part, the computer-generated citations are correct. There are a couple of known problems that are yet to be ironed out, though. For instance, in MLA style, we should capitalize all keywords in the article or chapter title from a book or periodical, but they are listed in lower case in the database except the leading letter in the article or proper nouns. Also, we only include the main URL or web address (before the first singleforward slash) for sources from any subscription online databases. Until a solution to such problems is identified for automated citations, we will have to manually capitalizekeywords in the article title and omit the unnecessary parts in the URL.

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Assessing Your Learning Outcomes

• Where do you go to find 36 Database PowerSearch?• Would you be able to conduct a Subject Guide Search

with a selected topic and located needed information?• Would you be able to conduct a Basic Search with

keywords from a selected topic and locate needed information?

• How to limit your search to professional, research articles from journals?

• How do you print, e-mail, and cite the retrieved sources?