Helen Hough, M.L.S.

University of Texas at Arlington

• Databases are collections of data

• in print: indexes and abstracting services

• In libraries these data would be

• article references

• book references

• entire articles

• entire books

• & other material important to library users

• Database software (computer programs; search engines) are used to manipulate the data

• Different vendors sell different collections of data

• Different vendors use different software

• different software do similar things

• Sort by author, title, subject, or keyword

• Gather user indicated subsets

• EX: vesico-ureteral reflux

• Combine different sorts to create very specific subsets

• EX: genetics of vesico-ureteral reflux

• There are hundreds of databases

• There are millions of references with or without complete text

• Determining a good database for nursing depends on the question asked

• Specifically nursing: CINAHL, Medline (Nursing subset)

• Psychosocial: PsycInfo, SociAbs, general ones like PAR, Dow Jones Interactive, etc.

Half of any good project is the thought put into it beforehand. Ask a librarian, ...

After selecting a database,

determine how it works

Subject Headings

• Formal terms or phases assigned by someone who has read the article

• Available from thesaurus

• Only one way to describe an idea

Keywords

• terms from article

• could be author name, publisher, text word, etc.

• no terminology control, need synonyms

• very good for newer words or ideas

Think about question

• EX: Are there any other risks associated with VUR

• What are the main points?

• other risks: genetics; co-morbid defects; complications (added later: optical; optic; ocular; eye)

• VUR; vesico-ureteral reflux

How do you combine synonyms?

Boolean OR

 

risks OR genetics OR defects OR complications

(Find Term1 OR Term2 OR…)

 

VUR OR vesico-ureteral reflux

How do you combine concepts?

Boolean AND

(Find all Items with Idea1 AND Idea2)

 

 

(risks OR genetics OR defects OR complications) AND (VUR OR vesico-ureteral reflux)

• Boolean "OR"; Boolean "AND"

• Positional operators:

• "ADJ" adjacent: term1 next to term2

• May include numbers for more words

• ADJ#: ADJ3 = within 3 words of each other

• "With" or "Near": within the same area, sentence, or paragraph

• Databases are logically created & sold

• Some may cover several decades

• Tend to be book and article related

• Tend to be topical:

• nursing, medical, general, psychological, etc.

• Have powerful, complex search engines

• May or may not include full text

Find CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) or Health Source: Nursing/Academic

• If it is purchased, who would?

• [www.uta.edu/library] (other organizations)

• What’s it good for?

• Finding stuff to back up research or a paper

• [Research Resources; Databases]

• It begins with the letter C or N

You want to find articles about:

Tube feeding and diarrhea

• open database

• enter term 1: tube feeding

• how? what happens, why?

• Enter term 2: diarrhea

• how? what happens, why?

Tube feeding and diarrhea

• Combine sets

• how? do you want "AND" or "OR"?

• What happened? Why?

• Limit to articles

• Limit to research

• Limit to fulltext