|
|
SECTION
II: FINDING ARTICLES
A. Choosing a Database
What
is a database? A database is an electronic collection of records.
There are many types of records: citations, tables of contents, datasets,
directory information, etc. Records are designed to be a brief representation
or surrogate of the original work.
The type of database
you'll need for finding articles is also referred to as a periodical
index or abstracted index (abstract). The records in
these types of databases are made up of fields, such as Author,
Title, Year of Publication, etc.
Some databases now include the full
text for some or all of the articles indexed. However, most
databases still contain only those fields that are needed for the bibliographic
citation and perhaps the abstract. When using those databases, you
need to find the full text of the article elsewhere.
The periodical databases that you would
use to identify articles are usually part of a larger search system.
Ovid, FirstSearch, InfoTrac, and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts are all
large search systems that offer a number of databases covering various
topics.
Next:
Sample Record from a database |
