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Library Research Tutorial

William Hessel Library

 

 

 

What is WilsonSelectPlus?

Wilson Select Plus (WilsonSelectPlus) is a full text database to articles in science, humanities, education and business. It provides indexed and abstracted records with accompanying full-text periodical articles, many of which are linked to citations in other *FirstSearch Databases. It includes U.S. and international professional publications, academic journals, and trade magazines with links to full-text articles. WilsonSelectPlus will continue to grow as new periodicals are added. Currently there are 1600 sources/titles.

*There are 30 different FirstSearch Databases available to search online. Many of the other FirstSearch Databases only provide indexed and abstracted records to sources. Many of these are subject specific. For most of this tutorial, WilsonSelectPlus will be explored since all cited sources are available full-text.

Where is WilsonSelectPlus located on the Library Homepage?

To locate WilsonSelectPlus, click on the library link to Magazines, Newspapers, & Indexes. Then look for the Full-Text Databases heading. Look for "FirstSearch" and immediately indented underneath is the separate link to WilsonSelectPlus. You can also locate WilsonSelectPlus by selecting the Databases by Subject or Alphabetical link to the left of the screen.

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Search techniques available and types of searches.

AND

type in: women and education

 looks for documents with both women and education
OR type in: dogs or cats looks for documents with either dogs or cats
NOT type in: dogs not cats looks for documents with dogs not cats
Using Plurals [+] type in mammal+ looks for documents with mammal and/or its plural, mammals
Using Plurals [+] type in: wax+ looks for documents with wax and/or its plural, waxes
Using Truncation [*] type in: instruction* looks for documents containing instruction, instructions and instructional
Using Truncation [*] type in: dogg* looks for documents containing doggie, doggy, dogges, doggerel, doggett and d'oggi
Using Wildcard [#] type in: wom#n looks for records containing woman and women
Using Wildcard [?] type in: colo?r looks for records containing color, colour, colonizer, and colorimeter
Using Wildcard [?1] type in: colo?1r looks for records containing color, colour, BUT NOT colonizer or colorimeter
Phrase " " (very helpful) type in: "lake michigan" looks for records with the words "lake michigan" side by side or exact phrase

The search boxes default to Keyword BUT there may be times when you want to indicate the type of search you want, e.g., Author. You can also search by year and you can change the Reviewed Journal Phrase to say "Peer Reviewed" to search the more scholarly magazines or journals. This way you would not pull up articles in Newsweek, for example, as it is not a Peer Reviewed journal.

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Sample search - advanced search screen.

Below is a keyword search for bullying and violence. The keyword search searches multiple fields such as title, abstract, subject/descriptor that contain the keyed in words.

Here are the first four results. How many total records were found? Note that the cited records are all full-text - PDF format and HTML. Both of these full-text formats are available for each record. Looking at number 1, note the author (Donahue), source (Current Health 2) and then the volume (30), and the date (Apr/May 2004), followed by the pages (13-15).

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Abstracted record with descriptor.

Below is the abstract record number 1, Back Off, Bullies! It is helpful to read the abstracts to see if the information summarized is the type of information you are looking for. Note the Descriptor link. Descriptors are like subject headings. For example, clicking on the Descriptor, School violence, will take you to all records where school violence has been assigned as a Descriptor. All of the found records will cite articles relating to some form of school violence.

Full-text choices.

Here are the full-text links:

This is the PDF article. The article begins with the title and source information. And for this article, note that the print is large, possibly due to the magazine, Current Health 2. Make sure you click on the printer icon right above the PDF article in order to print correctly.

 

Here is the HTML version:

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Emailing the article(s).

To email the article, the form will look like the example below. The email link looks like this: and is easily visible at the results listing or at the abstract record.

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Listing of the 30 FirstSearch databases and interlibrary loan information.

As mentioned earlier, FirstSearch contains 30 databases. Here is a listing of all the databases available to search.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

A full-text icon is shown next to many of these databases. In most cases the only database with full-text access for LMC students and staff is WilsonSelectPlus.

 

 

It is very easy to change databases once you are at a FirstSearch database like WilsonSelectPlus. See example below:

You can also do Interlibrary Loan requests regarding the databases that are not full-text. For example, let's take a look at WorldCat, a great resource to use for locating information held at over 47,000 libraries. The search is on "school bullying" as keyword and the limit type is books (see checked):

Here is one of the records as a result of the search. Note that 745 libraries have the book. If the William Hessel Library had the item, it would be noted.

Here is the next (partial) record with an ILL icon in the gray area of the form:

Clicking on the ILL icon takes you to this form (partially shown below). Fill this out and submit. The Library staff will notify you when the item arrives. Allow 7 to 10 days for receipt of item. Limit your request to five per week.

 

 

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Visit WilsonSelectPlus at the Library's Magazines web page to practice your own searches. If your instructor has assignments about WilsonSelectPlus, go to Blackboard.