Ebsco Database Tips

Ebsco Databases

Ebsco databases are a great place to start for focused research. There are plenty of options and tools for narrowing or focusing searches within an Ebsco database.

Off-campus users, use this link to open an ebsco session (Marian credentials will be required).

Choosing the Right Database

Before performing a search, one helpful tip is that multiple or different databases can be searched within any session.

Just above the search box click Choose Databases.

From this screen the user can select all of Marian's subscribed Ebsco databases or specific ones related to specific disciplines.

Next to each title are information bubbles providing a brief description of each database. Click Detailed View at the top for more information on each database.

Retrieving the Records

From the basic search box there are several options to limit the initial search results. Choose among article length, whether images are contained within results, date limitations, and related words to refine the parameters of the search.

Perform a search for the article Predictive Modelling of Contagious Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and click on the title link from the result list.

Note that while the article is on the left side of the screen (marked PDF Full Text), in the center is the bibliographic data of this article. Look at the area describing the subjects terms. Click on the DEFORESTATION heading. How many results were retrieved?

Next, perform a keyword search at the top for DEFORESTATION. Again, how many results were retrieved?

Retrieving the Records

Now perform a search for the article Pleistocene Rewilding: An Optimistic Agenda for Twenty-First Century Conservation. 

We do not have access to this article in Academic Search Premier, since there is no full text indicator. Does that mean we don't have this at all? Not necessarily.

Whether you are looking at a set of search results or a specific record, look for the Find It icon for items that don't have full text. It looks like this:

 Selecting this will determine whether or not we have access to this article from another of our databases? Do we have access to it elsewhere?

More Advanced Searching

Let's stick with this Pleistocene Rewilding article. Take a look at the bibliographic record. Not only can one click the linked subject, author and source fields, etc. to find records related to those terms, one can find other retrievable information.

At the very bottom is an accession number, a unique identifier for this record. Try a new search in the advanced search option with the drop-down set to Accession Number. 

Searches can also be used with their indexed identifiers for each record. Try some basic searches with these identifiers within the record:

AN 23174745

SO American Naturalist

KW taxon substitutions

What do these identifiers (AN, SO, KW) correspond to?

Browsing in Ebsco

Finding information need not always require a simple search box. Look at the top of the page at the blue banner at the top. Click on Publications.

In this area different sources can be searched and browsed by issue. Instead of performing an indexed search for American Naturalist, browse for it in the search box.

From the result screen one can determine whether full text access is available or not. As we have seen, we have no access to this title in Ebsco (remember what collection do we have it in?).

Clicking on the source link one will be able to find more info about the publication, such as which particular subjects are its focus, publisher info, and whether it's "peer reviewed".

Browsing in Ebsco

Perform a browse for sources related to the subject ecology, requiring the selection of the By Subject & Description option. There should be about 183 results listed.

Note there are check boxes next to titles. By checking these and clicking Add, one is allowed to search the entirety of multiple specific sources at once, just like multiple Ebsco databases at once, whether the source contains full text or not. Select the first three sources and add them to the search.

Not only that, when selecting sources and clicking Add, search strings for these choices are automatically generated in the search box at the top. Our selection should look something like this:

(JN "Ethology Ecology & Evolution") OR (JN "African Journal of Ecology") OR (JN "Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics")

Putting it all Together

The same can be done with Subject Headings. On the top blue banner, click Subject Terms.

Browse for terms related to climate. The results, like sources, can then be added to form a search string by selecting the check box and clicking Add. Note that Climatology is the preferred subject term in this database. Click the link for it.

Additionally, click on the Explode check box to the right of certain subject terms to include all available terms (without clicking on each subject link for individual selection).

What is the search string when clicking Explode for the subject term Climatology vs. selecting just Climatology itself? How many results are generated for each when a search is performed?

Cited References

Back again to the topic of rewilding. Say you wanted to find other articles that cite the ebook Twilight of the mammoths: ice age extinctions and the rewilding of America from within Ebsco.

Within the Cited References area at the top, browse for the title in the Cited Title field. From the results, find the citations that have a check box (number five) and then click Find Citing Articles. How many results are listed that cite this book? How many provide full text of the article?

Like with publications and subject terms, browsing cited references also involves limiters like author supplied keywords, authors, year, etc. 

Delivering it Home

A final tip to help retrieve both citations and articles is to use Ebsco alerts. 

Say you are now looking to retrieve results based on anything that is added to the database involving the keywords rewilding as well as its related term taxon substitutions. Perform the search:

rewilding AND "taxon substitutions"

Notice on the results page that there is an alert icon looking like the following:

Click on the drop-down and notice the options. Users can create email alerts, RSS feeds and permalinks of the search which will automatically deliver results to one's email account or feed reader, without needing to perform more searches.

The results will correspond to the exact parameters of the search, including whether any facets and/or full text limiters were used. Additionally, a permanent link to the search and results is created as well.

Note that in order to successfully create email notifications, the user must create and sign in with their free Ebsco account.

The End!

That's about it for this tutorial. For more information on using Ebsco databases to their utmost capabilities, click on the Help link at the top of the page. Or, feel free to ask a librarian!

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