LSCI 100: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION RESEARCH
SUBJECT GUIDE SEARCHING ON
THE GALE POWERSEARCH DATABASES
Preface
The puropse of this tutorial is to teach you how to find
articles on a broad subject using one of Skyline's most important databases: Gale PowerSearch. This tutorial demonstrates how to do this by using
what's known as the Subject Guide
Search mode.
At this beginning stage of your research, it is important to find overview
articles on a broad subject because they provide background information and can
help you narrow your subject into a precise topic.
In
assignment 3, you will use PowerSearch again.
By that point, you will have written a specific research question and will be
shown how to use Gale PowerSearch
to find articles on your narrowed topic.
Database
description
Searching
for a subject
Subject
Guide page
List
of articles for a subject
To
find overview articles, select “Books” tab
Viewing
a full article
Printing & e-mailing articles
Gale PowerSearch is a set of online magazine, journal,
newspaper and reference databases that are available through Skyline Library
from a company called Thomson Gale.
PowerSearch allows you to search a set of
various types of databases in a single search.
These databases include the following: Expanded Academic ASAP (academic journals), InfoTrac
OneFile (popular magazines & more), Full
Text Newspapers (major newspapers), Student Resource Center (variety
of student-oriented sources), Informe (Spanish
language publications), Health Reference Center Academic (health-related
information), Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center (information on social
issues), General Business File ASAP (business periodicals & company
information), and General Reference Center (general-interest information) databases. A PLS (
1. To access the Gale PowerSearch databases, click here. (A new
window will open, but this page will still be accessible by clicking on the tab
for this page at the bottom of your screen.)
If you are accessing the Gale
PowerSearch databases from off campus, enter your library card number from
your PLS library card in the entry box.
2. Once you're connected to Gale PowerSearch
databases, you will
be at the starting point for doing a Basic
Keyword search. This is the default
method of searching and is effective for many types of research. (You can learn how to use the Basic Keyword search by following our Basic Keyword
search Tutorial.)
To get general articles on
broad subjects when beginning the research process, it is most effective to use
the Subject Guide Search mode.
3. To access the Subject Guide Search mode, click on “Subject Guide Search” on the task bar near the top of the page (as shown below.)
4. Enter your search word or words for a general
subject in the
search box and click the Search button (as shown below.)
The “Subject Guide” page
(shown below) for any Subject Guide search displays Subject Terms that match
the subject word(s) you entered in your search and lists the number of articles
(“Results”)
for each Subject Term.
.
For many subject terms, there
will be links to “Subdivisions” and “Related subjects.”
- “Subdivisions”
are more specific aspects of a general subject. By clicking on the “Subdivisions” link for any subject term, you can
find articles listed on more specific subjects related to the general subject
term.
- “Related
subjects” are other subject terms that are related to subject term
listed above. By clicking on the “Related subjects” link for any subject term, you
can find articles listed on other subjects related to the initial subject term.
Listing articles for a subject
5. To see a list of articles for any subject, click on
a subject term (as shown above,) and then all articles for that
subject will be displayed in a “Results’” page (as shown below.)
Articles in the list of Results are organized into broad categories, identified
by tabs at the top of the list:
· Magazine articles
· Academic journal articles
· Book articles
(articles from reference books and chapters from book anthologies)
· News
articles (articles from newspapers or news services)
· Multimedia – photos,
maps, audio files, statistical tables, etc.
Click on any tab to see the
list for the given category. If the tab
is grayed out, no materials are available for that category for the specific
subject.
“Additional Databases” allows you to
run the same search in other databases available through Skyline Library’s
account with the Thomson Gale company.
The citations are listed chronologically with the most recent
article first, 20 citations to a page.
Articles that include the full text in the database have either a
"Full-text" and/or "n full pages PDF"
link at the bottom of the citation.
The type of article (e.g., brief article, book review, editorial, cover
story, sound recording review, etc.) is indicated at the right of each
citation. You may narrow your search to
just articles of a specific type (e.g. “Cover Story”) by clicking on an article
type on the yellow “Search” column at the left side of the results page.
You may also narrow your
search by Publication Title or Subjects by using the pull down menu
below “Narrow Results:” on the left
column. When you select Subjects, additional subject terms
relevant to your subject appear in the sidebar on the left side of the page.
These hyperlinked terms can help you expand or narrow your search, or take it
in a different, but related direction. Each time you click on a term, a new
search is performed based on the term you selected, with results displayed to
the right.
To find overview articles, select “Books”
tab
At the beginning of the
research process it is useful to try to find “overview” articles to get general
background and introductory information on a topic. “Overview” articles are articles from
reference books and will be listed under the “Books” category.
6. To select the “Books” category, click on the “Books” tab at the top of the Results page (as
shown above,) and a list of articles from reference books and other books will
be displayed (as shown below.)
As
mentioned above, the type of article
is indicated at the right of each citation.
To find “overview” articles that will give you
general background and introductory information on a topic, look for an
article labeled as: “Topic overview”
or other overview types, such as: “Event
overview”, “Geographic overview”,
“Era overview”, etc.
7. Click on the title of an article (as shown above) to display the
full–text of the article.
The full record page for an
article is shown below. (The full text
of the article is excerpted.)
To print an article, click on "Print"
in the “Tools” box to the right
of the article citation.
To e-mail an article, click on "E-mail" in the “Tools” box to the right of the article
citation (as shown above.)
To return to the Results
(Citations) page,
click on the "Results"
link at the top of the article page.
To do a new Subject Guide search, click
on "Subject Guide Search"
at the top of the page.
Citing articles
At the very bottom of every
article is a formatted “Source Citation”,
as shown below. This provides all of the
information needed for citing your source in a “Works Cited” list for a
research paper. The formatting of the “Source
Citation” is very close to the MLA citation format, which is one of the main
formats used in college research papers. Citation format will be covered in
detail in Lesson 6 of this course, but it is important to note that the “Source
Citation” given in the database will often need to be edited slightly to be in exact MLA citation format.
Lesson 1
Reading
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last revised: 10-30-08 by
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