TIMESAVING TIPS FOR INFORMATION GATHERING

 

 

Lynn Flanagan, User Services Librarian

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

 

 

Karin Hallett, User Services Librarian

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

 

 

Rhonda Armstrong, User Services Librarian

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

 

 

 

    Abstract

 

The explosion of electronic information sources and the frequent changes in search interfaces and technology make it difficult for users to keep current in the innovative ways they can make use of library resources for research and teaching.  This paper, presented in three parts, first provides practical, timesaving tips for locating useful information in library databases.  Next is a discussion of current awareness services, which automatically notify users of the latest information on their topic(s).  Finally, bibliographic management software to import citations from databases for use in a bibliography is covered.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

            Academic libraries are spending increasing portions of their budgets on electronic information sources and the associated technologies for access.  Faculty and students need to be aware of how library technology can impact the way they use library resources for research and teaching.  The explosion of the number of electronic information sources and the frequent changes in search interfaces and technology make it difficult for users to stay current in innovative ways to use these resources.  A study of faculty responses to library technology made by Starkweather and Wallin found that the concept of convenience was mentioned often.   Services that saved faculty time and allowed for asynchronous transactions from remote locations were considered valuable and convenient, but the transition process and learning new technologies were considered inconvenient.  (Starkweather)

 

This paper will provide some practical, timesaving tips for making the most of some innovations to help make the transition process easier.  The first section will give a variety of techniques for effective and efficient use of some of the popular bibliographic databases. The second section will focus on the use of current awareness services as a means of learning about new articles being published.  The third section will describe the use of bibliographic management software to save time and effort by importing citations from databases, library catalogs, and web sites into a user's own database for use as citations in papers and bibliographies.

 

PART ONE: TIPS FOR USE OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES

Lynn Flanagan

 

1.  Read the Help screens for the specific database you are using.

 

            Many database vendors provide access to several different databases using the same type of search interface. OCLC, SilverPlatter, InfoTrac, EBSCO, ProQuest and others offer several specialized databases in addition to a general index to periodical articles.  The vendors often have general help screens which apply to the basic searches in all the databases.  From these general help screens you should be able to learn such things as:

How does the search engine treat phrases?  Is the default connector AND, OR, or is an exact

phrase search performed? 

What truncation symbols are used?  

What different connectors, proximity operators, etc. are allowed and how are they used?

 

However, to make efficient use of a specific database, be sure to read the help screens for that particular database.  Often subject-specific access points or searchable fields are described which will allow you to focus your search.  These fields will vary according to the subject matter covered.  Even within the single database Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe there are differences in the most effective way to search the news, legal, business, medical, and reference segments.  Scroll down the screen to read the "Tips" information in each individual segment to find explanations of how to enter such special search criteria as legal citations, SIC codes, etc.

 

2. Make use of the different access points and the limit features for the specific database you are using in order to focus your results.

 

            Most interfaces provide both basic and advanced search screens.  Usually the basic interface allows only simple searches such as keyword, author, title, and perhaps subject.  The advanced mode, on the other hand, provides more access points and allows for combinations of criteria.  The advanced search mode should be used for complex research.  For example, the Basic Search screen of  ArticleFirst from OCLC's FirstSearch  shows only one query box with a pull-down menu of eight searchable indexes and no limiting choices.  The Advanced Search screen, on the other hand, shows four query boxes which can be combined with Boolean operators, plus it adds options of exact phrase searching to bring the number of indexes to twelve, and adds two limiting choices, thus allowing for much more focused search techniques. 

 

            The specialized subject databases from FirstSearch provide even greater flexibility.  Chemical Abstracts Student Edition, for example, has twenty-two different access points including such special fields as CAS Registry Number, CAS Section Name or Number, and Chemical Substance Term.  GeoRef has thirty-three different searchable fields including various latitude and longitude options, plus several Limits boxes including Document Type which offers eight choices.  Similar flexibility is offered from the advanced search mode in other subject databases from FirstSearch and from other vendors such as The Gale Group (InfoTrac), SilverPlatter, WilsonWeb, ProQuest, EBSCO and others.

 

            It is sometimes necessary to change the default display settings in order to view all the different access points or fields of information which are on a full record.  Read the help screens to determine how to change the display options if it is not obvious on the screen.

 

            It is very important to use the index and thesaurus when they are available.  Browsing an author index, for example, may disclose that a person has used several different forms of their name.   You must search for all the different forms in order to retrieve references to all the articles written by this person.  Many databases use controlled vocabulary subject terms which are often based on Library of Congress Subject Headings or a specialized list of headings used for the particular subject matter such as the MESH headings in Medline.  These subject terms are usually listed in a thesaurus.  One good search strategy is to search first by one of the broad controlled vocabulary subject headings and then to limit the search to items which also contain one or more specific keywords or phrases somewhere in the record.

 

            Use of the Limit Fields can help focus your results.  The InfoTrac family of databases, for example, provides a limit box for refereed publications.  Often students are confused about the difference in a scholarly and a popular publication and limiting the search to find only refereed publications helps them to retrieve only the more scholarly articles.  Other limit fields include such items as publication date(s), language, publication or document type, journal title, and other subject-specific limiters.

 

            The availability of many specialized access points allows users to become very specific in their search criteria.  This is especially important in very large databases where unmanageable numbers of results can be retrieved, especially if broad topics are used simply as keyword search terms.  For example,  using the SilverPlatter version of ERIC,  one may perform the following search:

            (inclusive-schools or mainstreaming) in DE  AND

            (hearing-impairments or deafness) in DE AND

            (early-childhood-education or primary-education) in DE

            with the Document Type limiter set to REPORTS-RESEARCH.

This search strategy will return only research reports in which the major concept is the mainstreaming of young children with hearing problems.

 

            In any large full text database it is especially important to use as many ways as possible to focus your search and thus reduce the number of results.  Even in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe which has limited provisions for complex searching, results can be narrowed using some of the specialized techniques available.  For example, in the News - General News segment you may type presidential candidate* in the keyword box and in the box to Narrow Search with Additional Terms add abortion and section(editorial),  leave the source as Major Newspapers,  and select the date range from the pull-down menus.  This would find only editorials published during the chosen time period in major newspapers commenting on the statements and stands of the presidential candidates concerning abortion.

 

            The flexibility provided by making use of the different access points in searching a database can also allow for really creative searches.  For example, suppose you are a chemistry professor and while at a conference you meet someone who has done some research on ksp solubility. You remember that his first name is Roy,  but that is all you know.  Later you become interested in ksp solubility and would like to discuss it with Roy.  Using Chemical Abstracts Student Edition, enter ksp solubility as a keyword (default) search and roy as an author keyword.  You will find an article co-authored by Roy W. Clark of Middle Tennessee State University and thus can contact him if you wish.

 

3. Learn which indexes include your favorite journal titles.

 

            As subject experts, most professors know specific journals which best cover their favorite topic(s).  Most databases provide a searchable field where a journal title can be entered to determine if that title is included.  However, it is usually more difficult to find a complete listing of all the titles covered.  Most search screens do not have a link to a journal list nor do the help screens.  WilsonWeb places an icon with a link to journal lists on the database selection screen, but not on the search screen.   Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe is unusual in that it does have a link to all the sources in this huge database at the top of the search screen, plus a link to the sources included in each particular segment of the database beside the pull-down menu for Source on the search page.

 

Often one can go to the web page of the producer of the data or the vendor and find a link to the journal title lists.   When you find such a list, it is a good practice to bookmark the link or put it on your web page.  (See my list at <http://frank.mtsu.edu/~lflanaga/journallists.html >).       

 

4.  Determine how to locate an item.

 

Many database vendors provide an easy way to learn if your library owns a book or a subscription to the journal referenced in a citation.  Some do this using a Holdings Utility program which allows library personnel to go through a list of journal titles included and "tag" those the library owns.  The program then places an icon or a marker of some type on the record to indicate that the library owns the title.  Other vendors provide a link from the record to the library's web-based online catalog.  Clicking the link automatically enters the ISSN or ISBN in the catalog search window and the user can immediately determine if the item is available in the library.  OCLC's FirstSearch databases check the OCLC holdings and display a written message.

 

If the item is not available in your library, some vendors provide a link to the Interlibrary Loan request forms of your library.  Clicking the link enters all the bibliographic information into the form.  All you have to do is add your personal information and send the request.  It goes directly to the Interlibrary Loan personnel who can then process the request knowing that all the bibliographic information is entered correctly.

 

Some vendors also provide links to Document Delivery services, which allow you to order an online display, e-mail, fax, or mail delivery of a copy of the article and pay for it using your credit card.

 

5. Repeat a search.

 

There may be times when it is important to repeat exactly a complex search you have done in order to continue an interrupted session, show a fellow researcher or student the search strategy you used, or to re-run the same search in order to find recent references which have been added.  Vendors handle this in various ways.  SilverPlatter puts a  "Save History" button on the screen.  When it is clicked, you are asked to enter your e-mail address and the name you wish to give to the search to be saved.  Later, when you open the same database, you can click on the "Load History" button, enter your e-mail address, and a list of all your saved search histories will display.  You can then re-run them, edit them, etc.

 

The Gale Group's InfoTrac databases provide "InfoMarks," which are persistent URLs, at several points in a search process.  The InfoMark icon appearing on a screen indicates that you can use your internet browser to bookmark that screen or copy the current URL and return to that same screen later.

 

6. Use the update codes.

 

The default sort setting for many databases makes the search results page display with either the most recent publication dates first or the most recent additions to the database first.   However, if you wish to see only those references which were added since the last time the database was updated or since the last update that you checked, then make use of the update codes field available in most databases.  In SilverPlatter databases, for example, you can enter your search query adding the update criteria in the format ud>YYYYMM for monthly or quarterly update schedules or ud>YYYYMMDD for more frequent updates.

 

7. Use Persistent Links.

 

As distance education and online course materials become more popular, professors face the challenge of how to abide by copyright restrictions and yet make information from copyrighted articles easily available to their students who are not on campus.  If an article is simply copied on to a web page designed for use by students in a particular class, but that web page is available to anyone who happens to click on it, then the copyright restrictions are not followed.  That can hardly be called "fair use."  However, if access to the article or information is limited to only those persons who have a legal right to access the database because of their affiliation with a subscribing institution, then the restrictions are being followed.

 

Vendors who provide persistent links to the article level are making it possible for professors to provide fair use access to information from a copyrighted database.  Using InfoTrac's InfoMarks, for example, you can incorporate a link to the full text of an article, to a bibliography which in turn may provide links to full-text articles, or to a search history which will rerun and update a specific search strategy.  When someone clicks on these links on your web page, they will be allowed to view the information only if they are authorized users of that particular database.  If they are registered as your students, then they should have access to the same online databases you have through the institution's library.  This technology is particularly helpful and allows for really creative uses because you can incorporate the InfoMark URLs into your online syllabus, daily assignment sheets, or even into an e-mail to a student or fellow researcher to alert them to a particularly useful article.  See the URL <http://frank.mtsu.edu/~lflanaga/infomarks.html>for some examples of uses of InfoMarks.

 

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe does not provide persistent links to articles.  However, Dr. Raleigh Muns at the University of Missouri - St. Louis has written a program which allows you to enter all the search criteria into his search window and save the URL which it creates.  Then you can use that URL to open Academic Universe with your search criteria already entered.  You can use this technology in much the same way as the InfoMarks with the extra step of executing the search.  Go to <http://www.umsl.edu/~muns/au/ > to use this free service from Dr. Muns.

 

8. View the Table of Contents of a particular journal issue.

 

Many scholars view browsing as an important way to discover new information.  Perhaps you enjoy browsing through the table of contents of every new issue of a favorite title.  Or perhaps you learn that an older theme issue was published on a topic of interest and you want to be certain that you find bibliographic information on all the articles in that issue.  Simply using a subject search query limited to the journal title and date of publication may not necessarily find them all.  Even if you do not have access to a database of tables of contents, you can usually get it from an index database that includes that title. 

 

Both WilsonWeb and InfoTrac interfaces make it easy if you find one article in the issue by adding a link to a list of all articles in that issue from a full record display.   When you do not know of an article in the issue, most databases allow you to use the Advanced Search Mode and enter the journal name in one search box and the publication date of the particular issue in the second search box connected by AND.  In InfoTrac if the journal field is not one of the indexes available in the drop-down menu of indexes, then it will be one of the limiting boxes listed below the regular query boxes.  In this case, use only the publication date in the query box and the journal title in the limit box below.   Each issue of Chemical Abstracts, even in the abridged Student Edition from OCLC, is much too large for browsing through a complete issue.  However, you can further limit your search to a specific section, or broad topic, in the publication.

 

Many vendors are now providing mechanisms by which you can have the tables of contents of journals or even references to all articles on a subject from the database automatically sent to your e-mail address.  That is the focus of the next part of this paper.

 

 

 

 

PART 2: CURRENT AWARENESS SERVICES

Karin Schreier Hallett

 

Introduction

            Electronic databases have become essential research tools in academe. They are generally the first stop for information seekers. In recent years, user interfaces have greatly improved, usually moving from text-based versions to Web-based versions. User friendliness combined with accessibility from home or office adds to the utility of electronic databases. Compared to print indexes, electronic indexes are updated more frequently, allowing searches of multiple years of data in one step, rather than leafing through volume after volume of print. Also, electronic databases offer more flexible search options. A feature of growing importance in electronic databases is current awareness, sometimes also referred to as selective dissemination of information (SDI).

 

            Due to the overpowering scope of electronic databases, users can be easily overwhelmed by the amount of information available. SDI provides a searcher with the ability to establish a profile for personal notification of newly added citations related to specific areas of interest. As such, it is a customized reference service, designed to keep researchers up to date on the progress within their specific fields. It may also be referred to as a personalized current awareness service, structuring information on behalf of end users. SDI grew out of the need to transmit ideas between researchers in the same or related disciplines (Fidoten, 6: 332). While the idea is not new, its nature and role have changed tremendously in recent years due to technological developments. Traditionally, librarians have scanned new items for content and matched the content with the information needs of their users. Online current awareness services, however, are more flexible than the traditional services, allowing users to create their own search profiles, and to print or download selected records. Also, services may be delivered via electronic mail or bulletin boards. Some services are made accessible by libraries and others are sold directly to the end user. Electronic current awareness services are no longer unique to proprietary databases but have spread to the Internet, providing real time information delivery. Following is a discussion of diverse, increasingly sophisticated, electronic current awareness services.

 

Current Awareness Services: Examples

Current awareness services are not a new idea. Traditionally, librarians have circulated bibliographic citations for newly acquired monographs or the tables of contents for recently received journals to academic departments. With the advent of electronic information retrieval, information seekers can now compile their own individual lists of recently published materials with the added benefit of greater search power offered by electronic databases.

 

Basic Services

The most basic current awareness services offer a save search facility, which stores profiles that can be re-run at a later date. This is a semi-automated service, with the request burden still on the user, however, who must execute the repeat search feature. Many different database vendors, including SilverPlatter offer these save search facilities and were described above.

 

A Table of Contents Service

A more sophisticated version of a current awareness service is one that automatically forwards the tables of contents of newly included journal titles to a specified email address. In order to receive the table of contents, a user typically selects from a list of journal titles. As soon as new issues are added to the database, a table of contents is generated and electronically mailed to the user.

 

One example is MCB University Press's E-mail Alert Service, provided through Emerald, the Electronic Management Research Library Database.  The database is available through subscription only. Emerald indexes over 130 journal titles, covering an array of management-related areas, such as general management, engineering, human resources, marketing, training and education, and library and information services. The full-text of titles is available back to 1994 and abstracts are available back to 1989. To receive the service, you must register by providing your name, affiliation, and contact information, and then selecting from a list of journal titles. Once registered, you will be sent a confirmation message. The list of titles currently can not be modified electronically--although MCB is planning to have this option up and running "within the next few months," according to a representative. At this time, a registered user can change a title selection only by contacting an MCB representative.

 

You will receive the table of contents of selected titles as soon as they are added to the database. Alert Service messages provide brief article citations, including an "article type" description (book review, case study, comparative/evaluators, journalistic, literature review, survey, technical, theoretical with application in practice, theoretical with worked example, or wholly theoretical), a list of keywords describing the content of the article, and a number of "quality indicators" ranking the article content with one to three stars according to four criteria: research, practice, originality, and readability.  The three star ranking is the highest mark. Each email notification includes hyperlinks to the full text of articles, providing convenient access to the information. There is one caveat, however, the full text is accessible only to extent of an institution's agreement with MCB.

 

A Search Strategy Service

SilverPlatter offers a search strategy current awareness service. Through their WebSPIRS SDI feature, you can save a search strategy and have it rerun automatically. Results are emailed to a specified address. To create an SDI, you must first submit a search. The search strategy is then reflected in the Search History part at the bottom of the screen. It must be selected by clicking the box to its left. You may select multiple search strategies. After selection, click the Create SDI button to fill out the Create New SDI form. An SDI one-word name must be chosen and an email address provided. Then you have the option to select an expiration date for the SDI and select whether to include the record number and database name and the type of field labels (long or short) in the email notification messages. Lastly, you may complete the Comment text box and indicate whether to use the comment as the email header. Clicking the Create SDI button saves the information and triggers a notification to the provided email address, informing you that the SDI "has been packaged and added to your account."

 

Depending on the options selected during the SDI creation process, the email notification includes a database name and record number and then lists the full citations, including abstracts and electronic availability, among other information. While SDIs are scheduled to run automatically once a week, you can force an SDI to run at any given time simply by clicking the SDI Account button from the search page, selecting the SDI, and then clicking the Run SDI button. Through the SDI Account screen, you can also modify the settings for an SDI, delete it, or load it to use, for example, in another search strategy. You should keep in mind, however, that even though SDIs are run weekly, some databases are updated less frequently. EconLit, for example, is updated only monthly, meaning that an SDI created in EconLit will retrieve results only once a month.

 

When calling up the SDI Account screen, all SDIs created using the account are displayed. That is, in case of an institutional account, all SDIs created by every faculty, student and staff are displayed on the same screen. This opens up any SDI to modification or deletion by anyone. A more serious issue may be privacy, since the SDI Account not only reveals the search strategy but also its creator's email address.

 

A somewhat more secure option are SilverPlatter's Alerts!, which operate according to the same principle as SDIs, except Alerts! can be set up only by the account administrator. The idea behind Alerts! is for users to subscribe to existing SDIs. After clicking the Alert! button at the right side of the screen, you can click on any of the Alerts! to view information about the Alert!, including search strategy. To subscribe to an Alert!, you must enter your email address in the Subscriber textbox and click the Set Address button. The system then displays a checkbox to the right of each Alert! name, which must be clicked in order to select an Alert!. After selecting one or more Alerts!, the Register Subscriptions button must be clicked. This allows you to receive electronic messages once a week.

 

A Document Delivery Current Awareness Service

Some vendors offer both the Table of Contents and search strategy current awareness options. One such company is the UnCover Company. It makes its database of more than 18,000 multidisciplinary journal titles searchable to the public at no cost. Coverage is from 1988 to the present. Unique about this database is that after retrieving citations, you can have the full text of the articles delivered directly to your fax machine or desktop.

 

Reveal Service is the company's current awareness feature. A rather sophisticated tool, it provides two options: one, to use the service for delivery of tables of contents of the most current issues of selected periodicals (up to 50 titles) to a specified email address; or, two, to use the service to store up to 25 search strategies, which are automatically run against new articles added to the entire database on a weekly basis, and then also forwarded to a specified email address. Unique to this latter option is that it not only searches journal but also book citations. UnCover has contracted with the Academic Book Center, scanning approximately 600 new titles on a weekly basis and matching them to the search strategies. When setting up search strategies, you should keep in mind that the citations only are searched, which include the title and subtitle.

 

The uniqueness of a service like UnCover's Reveal, however, lies in the fact that once you have reviewed the emailed citations, you can then order articles or books through the company's document delivery service simply by sending a reply message. The UnCover Company fills requests for journal articles, whereas book orders are forwarded to the Academic Book Center. Journal article requests are generally filled within 24 hours. There is a $10.00 per article fee, plus applicable copyright fees.

 

The Reveal Service requires that you register or subscribe to the service by setting up a profile, which simply consists of your name, address, phone and fax numbers, payment information, and an email address. There is no charge for setting up a profile. The system assigns a profile number and you must create a profile password. Once the profile is set up, you may edit it--and review or revise your selected list of titles and/or search strategies at any time. Titles for the table of contents service can be added or deleted through the View or Add Reveal Titles screen accessible from the main Reveal menu. You may delete a title by clicking the box to the left of the title and clicking the Delete Search button. To add, enter the journal title and click the Search button, which will display an alphabetical list of titles. If the searched title displays, you can click it to obtain summary information. Then click the Add Reveal Title button, which will trigger a message indicating that the title list was updated. Similar steps are taken to add or delete search strategies.

 

A report of the orders placed by an individual profile may be obtained at any time after logging in. While searching the database is free, there is a $25 annual fee per individual profile for the Reveal Service. Or, the service may be available to selected institutions through site licensing agreements.

 

Current Awareness on the Internet

What the above-described current awareness services have in common is that they provide bibliographic citations from print sources through proprietary databases. In a different category, the World Wide Web also offers current awareness services. Generally, notices of Web page changes, new search engine results, the most recent Usenet news articles, and current news stories can be emailed (Notess 75). The Internet has opened up an entirely new sphere for researching information. Unlike a proprietary database or a library collection, however, the Internet is not formally organized. And since anyone can post anything on the Web, the nature of information sources found on the Web differs significantly from what we have come to expect from print resources and electronic databases.

 

In an attempt to bring some structure to Web resources, the Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu) offers a current awareness service of a different kind. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and housed in the Computer Science Department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the Project's motto is "surf smarter, not longer." Susan Calcari, director of the Internet Scout Project, states that "Even the best Web site can only complement, not supplant, more traditional forms of information such as periodicals, reference materials, printed monographs, and the assistance of a librarian" (Calcari 14). Targeting the higher education community, the project's mission is "to promote the progress of research and education in the United States by improving the Internet's information infrastructure through the advancement of its resource-discovery tools" (Calcari 11). One "resource-discovery tool" offered is the Scout Reports, a weekly compilation of selected and annotated Web sites. The Project also features three subject-specific reports in the areas of Business and Economics, Science and Engineering, and the Social Sciences, which are published bimonthly. Then there are "Net-Happenings," a daily report of Internet announcements, and its offshoot "Net-Newsletters," a selection of regularly published electronic magazines and more. Web sites are reviewed according to standards used to evaluate sources available through other formats, including content, authority, information maintenance (Is the site regularly updated?), presentation (Is the information logically organized? What is the loading time? Etc.), availability (Are there any downtimes?), and cost. Reports are cataloged according to the Library of Congress Classification system and made searchable in the "Scout Report Signpost" archive.

 

Finally, the type of current awareness service offered by the Internet Scout Project is basic: you receive a Report simply by subscribing to a mailing list. For example, to receive the bimonthly "Scout Report for Business and Economics," you simply subscribe to the SRBUSECON electronic mailing list. This is easily accomplished from the Mailing List Gateway (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/misc/subscribe.html). After selecting a Report, you click the "Subscribe to SRBUSECON" link and follow instructions.

 

Summary

            What, then, are the characteristics of a good current awareness service? Obviously service cost and database currency and coverage (Rowley 179). How often is the database updated and how often are notifications delivered to the user? What subject areas are covered? Information seekers should investigate a search interface's search profile, display, sorting and browsing options. Also, is the retrieval limited to citations, or does it include the abstract and possibly the full-text? Is hypertext searching, i.e. selecting words from a citation display search to link to other citations with the same words, allowed? Is local holding information indicated, or document delivery an option? With continuous technological developments and our need to stay current, current awareness tools of any fashion are increasingly invaluable. To find more information about current awareness services provided by different vendors, ask a librarian at your local library.

 

 

PART 3: BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Rhonda Armstrong

 

When one needs to search many periodical databases, library catalogs, and web sites, then keep citations of these resources organized into a database of one's own, a bibliographic management software program is needed.  Citations from the database can be used while writing a research paper and a bibliography generated in an appropriate documentation style.  Two examples of this type of software are ProCite and EndNote, owned by the same company, ISI ResearchSoft.

 

There are three major ways to enter citations into a ProCite database. The user may directly connect to a library catalog or database from within ProCite.  The records can also be saved from some source and imported into ProCite.  The third way is to manually enter in the citation information.

 

ProCite 5 will allow direct connection to Z39.50 protocol sites (see Gauvin for more on Z39.50 protocol).  Hundreds of connection files are preconfigured and listed in the Host List to provide the necessary information to link to these sites. These are primarily large academic library catalogs and many of the commonly used periodical databases.  The user may, of course, set up other host configuration files to add to the list.  Configuration information must be changed as web addresses change and also appropriate passwords may need to be added to allow access to periodical databases.  These library catalogs and databases can be searched from within ProCite and the results marked as desired to copy just the marked records into a ProCite database.  Multiple locations may also be searched simultaneously which is another timesaving feature.  One drawback to searching this way is that a search done from ProCite may not be as successful as one from within the individual catalogs or databases because of the added search capabilities those databases have for searching various fields of the records.

 

If the choice is made to search the databases from within the databases and not from within ProCite, the records would be marked, downloaded, and imported into ProCite through the use of import filters. These import filters are available for many online and CD-ROM databases.  It is also possible to use Biblio-Link II, software that is included with ProCite, to create other import filters. An export plug-in is available to allow exporting from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) products and BioMedNet on the web.

 

Not only can records be imported from periodical databases and library catalogs, but also records can be imported from other bibliographic management programs such as EndNote and Reference Manager.  This will allow colleagues with different software to still easily combine their bibliographies.

 

The user may also simply enter citations into workforms that are set up for many types of documents such as journal article, monograph, unpublished work, music score, newspaper article, web page, etc.  In the case of a web page, there is an additional Tools command, Import Web Page, which makes it easier to add information to the workform because it automatically copies the URL into the form and displays information from the web site on a split screen for your convenience.  The web site can be accessed when needed from within ProCite.

 

Management features of ProCite include the options of displaying many views of the citation records, showing different sort orders, and previewing formatting styles.  A subject bibliography can be created by topic and an index produced.  Retrieval of references is possible by the use of the Term Lists which are lists of keywords, authors, titles, journals, and workforms (document types) represented in the ProCite file.  Other search capabilities include searching any of the ProCite record fields individually, searching all the fields, searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT), and with relational operators (=,<>,>,<,etc.). A search expression can be saved and reused when needed.  After performing a search, those records can be selected and saved as a group.

 

Bibliographies can be created in styles that are required for many different journals.  Over 600 are predefined and the user may add others.  The bibliography may be saved as a Word, WordPerfect, HTML, or text file.  One may also "Cite While You Write(tm)" which allows you to use a ProCite record as you need it for your paper without leaving your word processor. ProCite is then capable of generating a bibliography to match the citations used in the paper.

 

EndNote has many of the same features as ProCite.  It too has many preconfigured connection files to library catalogs and databases as well.  EndNote likewise has predefined filters for downloading from common databases.  Both products are integrated into your word processing software so you don't have to exit the word processor to access the other software to get a citation you need.  During the installation process, appropriate commands will become available from the menu command line.  In Word, these appear under the Tools menu.

 

EndNote and ProCite are especially strong in formatting references in scientific styles.  EndNote 3 was praised for this in a 1998 Science article (Shmaefsky 54).  EndNote 3 has formatting styles available in the following areas: agriculture, anthropology, biosciences, chemistry, genetics, geosciences, humanities, immunology, medicine, neural and behavioral, pharmacology, physics, psychology, public health, science, sociology, substance abuse, and virology.  ProCite has basically the same formatting styles but the styles are just listed alphabetically by the style such as MLA, Turabian, etc. or by the name of the journal.

 

These two bibliographic management software programs are among the most frequently used in academic institutions.  To learn more about them, a user may download a trial version of these and also a third similar product, the Reference Manager, from ISI ResearchSoft (www.isiresearchsoft.com).  For more information on evaluating the products, see articles by Gauvin, Oka, Shmaefsky, Saxton, and McMahon.  Regardless of the choice made, any one of these products will help streamline the process of keeping references organized and will save the user enormous amounts of time in the formatting of citations.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

            In conclusion, each section of this paper described advanced search techniques and features provided by a number of electronic databases.  Some of the techniques and features are integral to all databases, such as help screens, different access points, and field limiting.  Others are unique to particular vendor products, including InfoTrac's InfoMarks, or SilverPlatter's Alerts!.  Common to all is that they can save time and effort and should be fully applied by a database user.  In addition, specialized bibliographic management products not only complement electronic database searching and are convenient tools for researchers, but also ensure accurate documentation of materials.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

                        Calcari, Susan. "The Internet Scout Project." Library Hi Tech 15.3-4 (1997): 11-18.

                        Fidoten, Robert E. "Current Awareness Service." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Ed. Allen Kent and Harold Lancour. Vol. 6. New York: M. Dekker, 1968. 332-6.

                         Gauvin, Jean-Francois. "References to Go." EContent 22.5 (1999): 52.  InfoTrac. Expanded Academic ASAP. A56072042. 29 Oct. 1999.

                         McMahon, Timothy E. "ProCite 4: a Look at the Latest Release in Bibliographic Management Software." Library Software Review 17.1: 4(12). InfoTrac. Expanded Academic ASAP.  A20765954. 29 Oct. 1999.

                         Notess, Greg R. "Internet Current Awareness." Online 23.2 (March 1, 1999): 75.

                         Oka, Christine. "Reference Manager 9." Library Journal 124.17 (1999): 117. InfoTrac. Expanded Academic ASAP.  A57534790.  6 Mar. 2000.

                         Rowley, Jennifer. "The Changing Face of Current Awareness Services." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 30.3 (1998): 177-83.

                         Saxton, Matthew L. "EndNote 3.0." Library Quarterly 69.2 (1999): 287. InfoTrac. Expanded Academic ASAP.  A54479894.  29 Oct. 1999.

                         Shmaefsky, Brian. "Order at the End." Science 281.5373 (1998): 54. InfoTrac. Expanded Academic ASAP.  A20979770.  29 Oct. 1999.

                         Starkweather, Wendy and Camille Clark Wallin. "Faculty Response to Library Technology: Insights on Attitudes."  Library Trends 47.4 (1999): 640-668.