Chapter 7 Information from Electronic Fulltext Databases: Academic Search Elite

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Fulltext databases like Academic Search Elite give you access to thousands of articles on a host of topics.

 

EBSCO Information Services is a company that offers a variety of databases (fulltext and otherwise) to libraries on a subscription basis. (Fulltext, which is sometimes written as two words, means that the entire article is available in the database.) The one that this library subscribes to for all our faculty, staff, and students is Academic Search Elite.

Academic Search Elite provides access to the contents of over 3,200 magazines and journals. Articles from nearly 1,900 of these periodicals are included fulltext in the database. The database covers nearly all academic areas of study in the social sciences and the humanities, and includes many scientific areas, including engineering, physics, and chemistry.

Here's how you use Academic Search Elite

  1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage  http://libwww.cabrillo.edu [If you are at an information workstation in the library, just click on HOME near the top of the screen.] 
  2. Click on Fulltext Articles  [If you are coming in from off campus, your user ID is your library card number] 
  3. On the next screen, click on Magazine & Journal Articles  (EBSCOhost) (top left)
  4. On the next screen, click on 
  5. On the next screen, click on  Advanced Seaarch

The sample topic is origins of farming. Do the search that's illustrated below.

  1. Type origins in the first search box
  2. Leave the Boolean operator set on and (that's the default setting)
  3. Type in farming in the second search box
  4. Click on Search (over on the right of your screen; not shown below)

Academic Search Elite Advanced Search Screen

Exercise -- Answer the questions below by typing in the boxes.

How many articles did you find?

Do the search again.

  1. Type origin* in the first search box -- i.e., use the asterisk after the letter n (on the keyboard, the asterisk is Shift-8.)
  2. As before, leave the Boolean operator set on and
  3. Type in farm* in the second search box
  4. Click on Search

In this second search, how many articles did you find?

Why are the search results different?

Let's examine how you can limit your results. We'll do this by starting over.

  1. Select (over on right),
  2. Select Advanced Search Tab again

    The next search pictured here illustrates some variations, so you can see how you can experiment with using field searching and other limiters.

Academic Search Elite Limit your results screen

This search looks for the word origin or its variations in article titles, and the word agriculture in the subjects (subject headings), and then limits by

  • Peer reviewed -- in peer reviewed journals, articles are reviewed by other scholars and a selected number are recommended for publication; thus, these are scholarly journals
  • The articles will either be available fulltext in the database, OR
  • The journal will be in print in the Cabrillo College Library

Do this third search, and tell us how many articles you found.

Some of the articles are available as print sources in the library. Where are back issues of periodicals kept in the library? [Check out the library floorplan again, and look in the Circulation area.]

Now, give us your name and Library 10 Section number, then click on Submit.
Your name
Your Library 10 Section number