J.E. & L.E. Mabee Library

Cellular Biology/Micro-Biology Orientation

Objective: Locate and access books, dictionaries, handbooks, current journal articles and other publications for your research projects. You will be instructed on how to search the online catalog. Instructions to search electronic databases relevant to your project will be given.

Outcome: You should be able to successfully search online databases to access desired materials at UIW. These strategies will be transferable to other libraries.

Step 1: Find background information for your research projects.
Step 2: Find books and other publications on the online catalogs.
Step 3: Find citations, abstracts and the full text of journal articles.

Step 1: Find Background information. First floor. Encyclopedias and handbooks have articles that summarize a topic. Reference books have an R before the call number. The Reference Section is located to the right of the Reference Desk on the first floor.

Suggested Titles:

Step 2: Find books.WebVoyáge-Endeavor. The library catalog lists all the books owned by the UIW Library. There are several searchable indexes in the online library catalog. Click on the pull-down menu and select the appropriate index: Author, Title, Subject and Call Number. Instruction for the Telnet version of the catalog is available if needed.

Step 3: Find articles in journals. Journals are publications published usually monthly or quarterly. They provide current and historical information about a topic. The library has access to numerous online databases and indexes. These resources provide indexing of journals providing citations, abstracts and often the full text of the articles. We have full-text access to approximately 3000 journals.

STEPS TO IDENTIFY AND LOCATE JOURNAL ARTICLES

From the J.E. & L.E. Mabee Library Homepage click on the Databases link. Select an appropriate index/database based on the Subject Area and Years of Coverage. Two examples are provided below, PubMED and Academic Search Premier.

PubMED

1. Perform a keyword search. Click in the entry box and enter search term(s). Search operators may be used to create relationships between terms. There are three search operators:

(1) AND both words must occur in a record (e.g. cell AND immunology).
(2) OR one or the other or both terms must occur in a record (e.g. cell OR immunology).
(3) NOT the word after NOT must not occur in a record (e.g. immunology NOT HIV).

Please refer to PubMedâs Help and FAQ screens for more information on conducting searches.

2. PubMed provides citations and abstracts. PubMed also provides LinkOut - This is a service that provides links from PubMed citations to full-text journal articles, biological data, sequence centers, etc. Some sites may require that you register, subscribe, or pay a fee in order to view the full text of an article. Be sure to save or print out a list of selected citations to check against the UIW library's collection.

Academic Search Premier

1. Tabs Bar. The row of tabs across the top; Basic, Advanced, Choose Database, control the type of search we wish to perform, basic or advanced, and allow us to choose which EBSCO database to search in.

2. The second row of buttons allows us to choose whether we will perform a, "keyword", search or use the built in "Subjects", thesaurus. Keywords will search for the use of the word in all text fields, Subjects, will look for the term in its alphabetical list, or try to map out the term to the most relevant topic if we click the, "Relevancy ranked", button

3. You can further modify your search by clicking on the Advanced tab along the top row, or by clicking on the Search Options tab just above your search results. You may limit your results to a specific publication, to a date range, or to only display those citations with full text. You may also limit your search to those articles that have been "peer reviewed".

Detailed information explaining searching, features and FAQs are available by clicking the, Search Tips, button.

Viewing a Full Text Document

When browsing your results you will notice some of the records have the Abstract, Complete Reference and Full Text. If the record contains the Full Text you can view documents as they would appear in the actual journal. To view a full text document, click on any "Full Text" link that you discover while browsing. When you click a full text link, your desired full text document will appear, formatted to resemble the printed version. You can view all elements of full text documents on your screen, print the text, print the graphics (in color on color printers), save the text to an ASCII or HTML file, or email the text to any Internet address.

PLEASE REMEMBER... just because you don't see the full text of a citation you like in the database itself, doesn't mean UIW doesn't carry the publication. We may subscribe to it, and have it in our print collection on the second floor, or it may be available in another database. To view all the articles at UIW, click on our PERIODICALS LIST, on the Library home page. Here you will find all the letters of the alphabet. Click on the letter your journal begins with to view an alphabetical listing of our holdings. If you determine we don't have access to the journal consult the CORAL List for Interlibrary Loan. You may also go to the library owning the journal and physically access your articles. The CORAL database maintains the records of journal and periodical holdings of San Antonio Libraries. Interlibrary Loan forms are available at the Reference Desk.

Note: You may access the libraryâs databases/indexes from off-campus. Go to http://www.uiwtx.edu/~libweb/dialin.html to get instructions on how to configure Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer for off-campus access.

Last but not least... a great site to consult when you get around to writing the paper. This is a great, how-to, site for beginners. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.