Using the Gale Databases
To use the databases with the name that ends in "In Context" locate the search box at the top right of the page. Above the search box there are several tabs. These tabs give several different ways to search the database. You can search all of the documents using the tab labeled "All" or limit your search using one of the other tabs. The other tabs will vary from database to database depending on the subject. Please note that when using the Biography In Context database, you will search by a person's name, not a subject. The "In Context" database searches will produce a page that is divided into sections. At the top of the page is usually a picture of the subject and a paragraph of general information. The other sections are basically labeled "Featured Content", "Reference", "News", "Academic Journals", "News", "Magazines", and "Websites". There may be other sections on the page depending on the subject, such as a section labeled "Experiments" in the Science In Context database. The entries will contain the title of the article, the name of the publication and the date of publication. The entry will also contain the introductory paragraph of the article. This information will help you to decide with articles will be most helpful for your research. To use most of the other databases, such as "Infotrac K12 Student Edition", click on the link and the search page will open. The search box will have several tabs above it labeled "Keyword", "Subject", "Publication Title", and "Entire Document". "Keyword" and "Subject" are the most commonly used tabs. Select one of the tabs and write your search term inside the search box. Below the main search box are several small boxes. These will help you to narrow your search. These boxes are labeled "to documents with full text", "to peer-reviewed publications", and "to documents with images". You can select none or all of these options, however, is usually a good idea to at least select the box labeled "to documents with full text". The page that displays your search results will have a menu of the types of results in the left hand column. The menu might contain "Magazines", Academic Journals, "Books", "News", "Images", "Videos", and "Audios". Below this part of the menu are options to continue to narrow your search by "Document Types", "Publication Titles", and "Publication Dates". The menu on the right will give you options for other information on topics that are related to your search query. These could be "Related Images", "Related Videos", and "Related Podcasts". Each entry will display the title, author, name of the publication, type of publication, date of publication, Dewey Decimal number, word count, reading level and the introductory paragraph of the article. This information is designed to give you a quick way to see what the article is about and decide if it will be helpful with your research. |