Ebscohost and Gale Database Tips

Research papers are upon us - people are working on them in droves.  Many of you are told by your teachers to use the research databases like Ebscohost and Gale Powersearch.  If you're stuck, here's some tips I put together for one of the English classes.  I hope they help.

1)      To find the databases, click “Research” on the menu of the Library Media Center website. 

2)      There are two main research databases available to you (not including encyclopedias)

a.       Ebscohost - Use the Search box in the middle of the page to search some of the preselected Ebsco Databases or click on the Ebsco logo on the right to choose your own.

                                                               i.      Ask Mr. B. or Mrs. Webb for the password.

                                                             ii.      Ebsco citations are found by clicking on the article title and the clicking “Cite” on the tools menu to the right.  You will get the bibliographic citation for several different style manuals.

b.       Gale – Click on the link that reads “Gale Powersearch” in the table below the search boxes.

                                                               i.      Ask Mr. B. or Mrs. Webb for the password.

                                                             ii.      Gale citations are found at the bottom of any full text article or by clicking “Citation tools” on the menu to the right.

3)      Research databases contain articles written by academic professionals.  Do not expect
 to find a quick answer about who a person is or why they are important. 

4)      Use specific search terms like “Medusa” rather than writing questions such as “Why does Medusa have snakes in her hair?”  These don’t compute well with databases. 

5)   If you need articles that have specific information, try joining search terms using quotation marks and the word “and” or “not.”  This is called Boolean Searching.  For example:

a.       “Medusa” AND “snakes” AND “hair”

b.       “Pegasus” NOT “astrology”

c.       “Hercules” NOT “Disney”

6)      If you don’t know much about a subject or what search terms to use, try starting with an encyclopedia article (even Wikipedia)to learn a little more about the topic.  Then use some of the names, places, and events you find as search terms in the research databases.