1347 OhioLINK Research Databases Database Guide for: ABI/Inform Applied Science & Technology Art Index Biography Index Biological & Agricultural Index Book Review Digest Cumulative Book Digest Dissertation Abstracts Education Index Essay & General Literature Index to Legal Periodicals Library Literature Newspaper Abstracts Periodical Abstracts NOTE: Use of these databases is limited to people affiliated with OhioLINK member institutions. ABOUT THE DATABASES ABI/Inform: 800 business periodicals since 1971. Updated monthly. Applied Science & Technology: Engineering, technology, & science periodicals since 1983. Updated monthly. Art Index: 220 international art publications since 1984. Updated monthly. Biography Index: Historical and current data from sources since 1984. Updated monthly. Biological & Agricultural Index: 225 periodicals on biology & agriculture since 1983. Updated monthly. Book Review Digest: Reviews since 1983; covers 95 periodicals. Updated monthly. Cumulative Book Digest: Bibliographies to 60,000 books in English since 1982. Updated monthly. Dissertation Abstracts: Dissertations and Master's Theses since 1861. Updated monthly. Education Index: 400 periodicals in education published since 1983. Updated monthly. Essay & General Literature Essays from books, etc. published since 1985. Updated monthly. Index to Legal Periodicals Covers 630 law journals since 1981 and books since 1994. Monthly. Library Literature Library & information science publications since Dec. 1984. Monthly. Newspaper Abstracts Abstracts to articles in 27 U.S. papers since 1989. Updated weekly. Periodical Abstracts 1600 periodicals covering a variety of subjects since 1986. Monthly. HOW TO CONNECT 1. Access the databases from your local library system; or, using your campus network, telnet to OhioLINK: telnet cat.ohiolink.edu login ohiolink 2. At the main menu, select: Research Databases 3. Select the subject group that best describes the desired database, or 4. Select "Alphbetical List of All Databases" and then select a database. ENTERING A SEARCH Example Search Screen: ____________________________________________________________________ COMPANY NAME : R J Reynolds ABI/Inform Type all or part of the COMPANY NAME, beginning with the FIRST word for example ---> General Electric or just ---> general If you are uncertain of the company name, use the WORDS search option. [Press the ESC key to begin a different search.] .... then press the RETURN key Press the key to begin the search. ______________________________________________________________________ You can search all of the databases using the same search techniques: * Use your own words, or if that doesn't work, try to think of synonyms. A thesaurus will help. * Use specific words whenever possible. You will get more usable results more quickly. * Combine terms to broaden or narrow your search (see below). * Backspace to erase. * Press to start over. BROADENING A SEARCH Use "or" between similar search terms to expand your results. For example: WORD: bike or bicycle or bicycling (finds any of these) Use "*" to get words with the same root. For example: WORD: athlet* (finds athlete, athletes, athletic, and athletics) NARROWING A SEARCH (LIMITING) Once you have done a search, you can limit the results by specific criteria such as language, publication year, etc. To Limit: Press at the list of articles. Select a limit and follow the prompts to specify the criteria. You can limit by several criteria at one time by using "AND". When you have selected all desired limits, then press to apply them to your search. EXPORTING A SEARCH "Exporting a Search" means that you can save the results of your search on diskette or hard disk for later use. This feature requires that you are using a workstation that has capture capability (e.g. Kermit, NCSA Telnet, etc.) and a floppy drive or hard disk. See the guide "Downloading Records from OhioLINK-I" for full instructions. These are the basic steps for exporting: 1. Choose E>Export from the bottom of any search result to place it in a temporary save file. You can save as many files as will fit on your diskette. 2. IMPORTANT: When you are finished saving files and are ready to exit the database, choose E>Export/VIEW Save File from the main menu to send all of the saved files to diskette or hard disk. QUESTIONS Consult library staff for help in obtaining articles and for answers to other questions. ### Written by Elizabeth Timmons, Director of Publications, OhioLINK For more information: info@ohiolink.edu Copyright 1994 Wright State University . 0