The Databases Page The next item on our tutorial is our collection of Databases. In most cases, the Library pays for access to information not available to ordinary web users. Most of the Databases will lead you to articles on a topic, and in some cases, numeric or textual data. You can reach our databases page from the top menu bar of the Library Home Page:

The Databases Page

Top Menu Bar of the Library Home Page

Databases can be bibliographic or full text. Bibliographic databases inform you of the existence of an article, and you then pursue that article in the Library's physical collection by using the Library Catalog, in the electronic collection by doing an E-journals search (by using our "SFX" button) or procuring it via our "Get Materials" webpage. Full text databases not only function as bibliographic databases, but they also allow you to read the article on the screen, without having to pursue the physical copy in the Library.

Typical questions answered by our Databases page: 

• What database should I use to get some articles on my topic?
• What is the best database for my topic?
• What databases have full text?

Some common capabilities of the databases:

• Mark specific items (articles or bibliographic citations) to gather them together in a group for future action (formatting for printing, emailing).
• Search by subject or keyword.
• Limit search results to only those items available in full text.
• Support searching with Boolean Operators.

A few of our databases have special features:

• Can filter to "peer reviewed" articles only.
• Can open our Library Catalog and search for that title in our collection with a single click. (I suggest using a "right click" to open it in another browser window, so you still retain the original information).
• Click through to read the full text of the article right on the screen.

Right: You can get to specific databases by choosing a category in the pull down menu...   OR   if you know the name of the database, click on the first letter of its name.
Below: Icons and Full text notations in the Databases are very important. Here we have icons from the BasicBiosis database.                                                       Above: If there is any kind of a "Full Text" notation near the desired item, click on that link  to get the full text (that is, you can then read the article right in the screen, as in item 26, above). If there is no "Full Text" icon or notation (as in number 27) the click on the "SFX" button .
Right: the SFX Button then gives you this SFX services screen. Click on the links that say "Full Text"; this will eventually lead you to a copy of the article that you can read right on the screen. If there is no "Full Text" available, then click on the "Check Holdings" links to see if we have it in the Library Catalog.
If there are no holdings, then click on the "Document Delivery" link (not shown on this screen) to get a copy from another place (this uses our "Get materials" functions)