Genna Mickey

June 20
th
, 2013
Dr. Gao
Searching Electronic Databases
LIS Database Evaluation and ProQuest/EBSCO comparison
1. LIS Database Evaluation
Collection Size
In evaluating the Library and Information Science Databases, I first took approximations of the
collection sizes. World Cat was left out of this graph because it contains so many more items than the other
databases at about 1.5 billion. Several databases were left out because I could not determine the exact collection
numbers.


0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000
ALA Guide to Reference
ARBA Online
Book Index with Reviews
E-LIS: E-prints in LIS
GPO Monthly Catalog
LISTA with Full Text
Literature Resource Center
Middle and Junior High Core Collection
MLA Directory of Periodicals
Novelist Plus
Papers First
Primary Search
Proceedings
Professional Development Collection
Proquest Congressional
Public Library Core Collection
Senior High Core Collection
Short Story Index
UlrichsWeb
Video Librarian Plus
Collection Size of LIS Databases
Collection Size
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I was impressed with the number of reviews available in Book Index with Reviews. I do not understand
why Dominican still keeps the What Do I Read Next? database by Gale as it doesnt seem to have been
updated since 2009, and it really lacked in updates from 2006 to 2009. Also the interface was very outdated and
ugly blue coloring. With the 4 million reviews available in Book Index with Reviews, I think the What Do I
Read Next? database is not being kept for reviews, but rather, for the lists available within the databases like
2005 Caldecott Winners etc. It is good to have a resource with these type of book groupings available, even if
new lists are unavailable.
Vendor Comparison

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ALA
Contentdm
Datacorp.net
EBSCO
Eprints
FirstSearch/OCLC
Gale
Libraries Unlimited
ProQuest
Video Librarian Plus
Emerald Management
Number of LIS Databases per Vendor at Dominican
University
Number of LIS Databases
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I was expecting more of the databases to be ProQuest vendors, but that was not the case. Mostly they
were from EBSCO with 10 LIS databases, and the second most used vendor was FirstSearch/OCLC with 4 LIS
databases. Gale had 2, one of which is the outdated What Do I Read Next? and the other being Literature
Resource Center with 1.5 million entries. Very different quality between these two Gale powered databases.

Discussion of Databases
One thing I never realized before is that Novelist is powered by EBSCO. You would never guess it from
the interface it is very different from the normal EBSCO search screen. It has a graphic of a child reading, and
has many orange color choices making the database very visual. It also has book covers from featured searches.
This EBSCO database is very visually impressive in comparison to the other EBSCO databases which normally
all look the same.
Video Librarian Plus database looks very much like a newsletter website. I liked the search feature of
being able to look for videos based on star rating, audience level, and closed captioned. The new release
calendar is also helpful for librarians in collection development planning to see what is on the horizon that a
library might want to purchase. I like that the new release calendar is prominently featured on the main page.
Though the database looks more like a website than a search engine, it is very visual and colorful which is
maybe better for a video site where users want to see and review media. I think the format works for the
material.
I was very unimpressed with Cabells Directories, which is hosted by datacorp.net. The colors of the site
are outdated and so are the graphics. It looks very elementary for a database that scholars are trying to use to
find out where to get their work published. I think improvements need to be made to the interface as well as the
usability of this database.
I was impressed with the ALA Guide to Reference by ALA. I think since we are librarians, this helped
to influence the design of this database and included many search boxes on the advanced search page. Though
the style of the website is more website focused than database focused, this works because the audience is all
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librarian professionals who know how to locate the search features but who also might benefit from the other
news information coming from this ALA hosted site.
Finally the interface I was most impressed with was the CARLI Digital Collections which is by
Contentdm vendor. The color is very sleek silver, there are digital images scrolling on the main page which fits
with the database theme. It is easy to locate the search and advanced search features, and the website has a good
flow.
2. ProQuest and EBSCO User Manuals
Create your own user manual for Ebsco and Proquest database available at Dominican. You can use the
information from their help sections, but need to rewrite it in plain English and make it "accessible" for
the general public.
ProQuest
Basic Searching Tips
*AND, OR, and NOT can all be entered in either lower or upper case
*ProQuest follows this order when you search for a term with these operators: 1. NEAR 2. PRE 3. AND 4. OR
5 NOT. You can override this operator precedence by putting ( ) around your search terms.

AND = this will find both terms. ProQuest automatically assumes there is an AND in between each of the
search terms you type in. If you type nonverbal communication into Proquest, Proquest will look for both of
those words together, like the search nonverbal and communication. It will not return results that only have
nonverbal or only have communication.

OR = this will allow you to broaden your results. For example: gangsters or mafia

NOT = this will exclude the word you include after NOT. Example: space not galaxy will return results that
include the word space but not galaxy.
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NEAR/n or N/n = Near or N can be used, plus a / and then a number. This translates to that you want
ProQuest to search for two terms in any order within the number of words you specify. Example: online
NEAR/5 learning will find these two terms if they are 5 words apart from each other

PRE/n or P/n = want to look for a result that has a search term a specified number of words before a second
search term. Example fire P/2 safety will find articles that have fire and safety within 2 words after fire.

EXACT or X = you want the term to be exactly that. Usually this is used in subject searching. For instance:
SU.EXACT(leadership management)

LNK = this will link a descriptor term to a subheading after you select the right term from the thesaurus or by
using LNK. This can also make sure that you find these two terms linked together to ensure you are finding the
right result.

Search Fields
You can search words within specific fields. Say you only want to see the word alien if it is in the title of a
work. To find this, type: TI(alien). If you only want to find works by bill gates, type in AU(bill gates). If you
want to search for works with alien in the title by author bill gates, separate the terms with the operater AND. If
you want to find works with bill gates in the title or author field, separate the search field codes with a comma:
AU, TI(bill gates). There are other common search fields besides just title and author, like abstract, which is
AB.

Wildcard = ? = when using a ?, this is a wildcard character that you can put in place of a letter to find multiple
variations of the word, like theat?? Will find theater and theatre.

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Truncation = * = this will help you find variations of the word you are searching for. Ex: manag* will find
management, managers, and managing. You can also enter the * before a word, you can enter [*10] or another
number to find the words that have the specified number of characters before the rest of the typed word.

Note: When you use wildcards and truncations, you can not limit your results to relevance because ProQuest
will not be able to determine whether or not it is relevant.

Quotation Marks = If you enter a phrase and enclose the phrase in quotation marks, this is called phrase
searching. For example jazz age.

Word Variants Sometimes works are spelled differently in other cultures, like theatre or colour. To
specifically find that word, enclose it in quotes

Limiters limiter boxes can be checked to show full text or peer-reviewed, but they vary by database. Be sure
to look up the database guide depending on which one you are searching.
In general, here are the ProQuest limiters:
- Full Text, Peer-Reviewed, and Scholarly
- Source Type: example: report, scholarly journal, book
- Document Type: blog, book, advertisement
- Language
- Sort results by: relevance or publication date
- can limit items viewing per page
- can include duplicate documents (check box)
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Depending on what subject you are searching, the boxes may change. Here are some of the different subject
areas: The Arts, Business, Dissertations, Health and Medicine, History, Literature and Language, News and
Newspapers, Science and Technology

Thesaurus =MeSH (Medline) and EMBASE are thesauri where you can look up a word and find similar words
in order to expand your search.



EBSCO
Search Tips
Limiters =
- Full text
- Scholarly peer reviewed journals
- Can enter the title of the publication
- Document type
- Number of pages
- PDF full text
- References Available
- Published date frame
- Publication Type
- Language
- Cover story or no
- Image Quick View
*Interesting EBSCO allows you to complete a Visual Search to view how terms and articles are linked
together. The types of searches are Basic, Advanced, and Visual.

AND = use this between two words so that you can find both words in your results: gangsters and mafia will
show results that have both terms
OR = this will allow you to broaden your results. For example: gangsters or mafia

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NOT = this will exclude the word you include after NOT. Example: space not galaxy will return results that
include the word space but not galaxy.

Wildcard = ? or #= when using a ?, this is a wildcard character that you can put in place of a letter to find
multiple variations of the word, like theat?? Will find theater and theatre. Make sure you do not add a ? if you
are looking for an exact title that already includes a ?, as that will not return the right results

Truncation = * = this will help you find variations of the word you are searching for. Ex: manag* will find
management, managers, and managing. This symbol can also be used between words to match any word. Say
you dont remember a word in a title, replace it with a * and it will help you find the right result.

N or W= near or within operator - use this combined with a number to find words that are within that distance
from the term.

Parentheses this helps create a more controlled search query. A search is conducted from left to right unless
the ( ) are in place around groups of terms.

Quotation Marks = this will find exact phrase unless there is a stop word. A stop word will not ever be
searched.