Use either MCC Library Services' main search tool located on the library home page or the additional suggested databases, CINAHL or Health Research Premium Collection, to locate articles on respiratory diseases. Here are some basic search tips that can work with both kinds of databases:
Brainstorm suitable keywords for your search based on what you want to know. Don’t enter questions or sentences into the search screen.
Example: Asthma
Do separate searches for each subtopic.
Choose the Advanced Search option for each database that you search. Use the search fields to create a more specific and targeted search: Subject, Abstract, or Title. This won't be necessary for all of your search terms.
Look for Peer Reviewed or Scholarly Source limiters on various database advanced search screens.
Limit your search to the last 5 years under the Publication Date limiter on the search screen.
When first accessing the library's main search tool from the library homepage, be sure to login to your personal library account. This allows you to save articles to a folder for later use.
The video below will teach you the basics of using the MCC Library's search engine (which is located on the library's homepage). It incudes information on:
The video below will teach you to use the cite, share, and save button's on the item-preview screen.
The video below will teach you to find more information about a search result by accessing its record page.
Which of the following searches will be more effective?
A) Are school vouchers good or bad for public schools?
or
B) "school vouchers" AND "public schools" AND issues
The answer is typically B - keywords and phrases.
In most cases, you do not want to type in a long sentence or sentence fragment. Taking your search topic and translating it into the most important keywords that describe your topic is the most effective search technique. The cases in which you would want to use a sentence as your search phrase is when you are gathering background information, you are having trouble effectively searching with keywords, or it is likely authors will use such similarly worded sentences in their articles.
Other tips regarding keywords:
To search for two or more words in an exact order, place quotation marks around the phrase. The computer will only return documents containing that specific phrase rather than documents containing each word found individually anywhere in the document.
EX: "obsessive compulsive disorder"
By using three simple words, you can improve your search results. Boolean searching connects words and phrases with three Boolean Operators, AND, OR, and NOT. Depending on the operator, you can either narrow or expand your search results. Use the Advanced Search tab found in the databases (EBSCO defaults to the this screen).
AND will make your search smaller. If you are getting too many items in your search results, try linking another term to your topic using AND. When you add AND between two or more search terms, your search results will include all of your search terms.
EX: obesity AND children
OR will make your search bigger. If you are receiving too few results, try connecting a synonym to your topic using OR. When you add OR between your search terms, your search results will include either of your search terms.
EX: teenagers OR adolescents
NOT will exclude a word from your search results. If you are getting too many results on an unrelated topic, try eliminating a word with the operator NOT. Your search results will only include the term before NOT.
EX: cowboys NOT football
Library databases have predefined fields that you can search within. Limiting your search to specific fields can make your search more precise. For example, if you are looking for a particular article, type in the article title and choose Title in the drop down field menu. Use the Advanced Search option to search within a field (default search screen in EBSCO). Some common fields are:
EX: EBSCO
Limiters help refine and narrow your search. Using Limiters can give you more precise results. The location of these limiters vary by database, but are commonly found on the left side of the page. Some may be applied before your search or after. Common limiters are:
Truncation allows you to search for a root word with all of its different endings by placing a symbol at the end of the word. Symbols vary by database so check the help section on each database. Common symbols are:
* (asterisk)
! (exclamation mark)
? (question mark)
EX: femini*
The computer will search for feminist, feminism, feminists, feminine, feminize
CINAHL Complete provides full-text and citations for nursing and health-related journals covering 1982 to the present. The content covers a wide range of topics including nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, and allied health disciplines. In addition, the CINAHL Database allows users to conduct a targeted advanced search for evidence-based material.
Health Research Premium Collection serves a wide range of users with a broad collection of journals, evidence-based resources, and full-text dissertations. Content comes from 7 different ProQuest health and medical databases. This database is recommended for students, researchers, medical professionals, hospital administrators, or even patients and their families.
You can customize Google Scholar to link to full text articles from MCC Library collections....
Click the Full-Text @ MCC Library beside the article to access it. For search results where there is no link for the MCC Library, you may get some free full text from the publisher or be asked to purchase the article.
