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at 217-641-4537.
EBSCOHost is a powerful online reference system accessible via the Internet.
It offers a variety of full text databases. These comprehensive databases
range from general reference collections to specially designed, subject-specific
databases.
You may use the Basic Search or Advanced Search function. When
searching, you may want to use different methods that will help refine your
search strategy.
- Boolean Operators:
- AND - combines search terms so that each search
result contains all of the terms
- OR - combines search terms so that each search
result contains at least one of the terms
- NOT - excludes terms so that each search result
does not contain any of the terms that follow it
- Quotation Marks; when a phrase is enclosed by double quotations marks,
the exact phrase is searched.
- Wildcard and truncation symbols:
- Use the wildcard symbol (?) to create a search where there
are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.
- Use the truncation symbol (*) to create a search where the
root of a search term is known and replace the ending with an asterisk.
- Proximity; this is used with a keyword or Boolean search. It is used
when you are searching for two or more words that occur within a specified
number of words of each other in the database.
- Near Operator - for example, (N5) finds the words if they are
within five words of one another regardless of the order in which
they appear
- Within Operator - for example, (W8) finds the words if they are
within eight words of one another and in the order in which
you entered them.
- Grouping terms using parentheses; this controls a search query. Words
that you enclose in parentheses are searched first.
EBSCOHost also offers a Visual Search. Your results will be sorted by topic in
an interactive, visual map. To show more details, you will be instructed to click
on the circles or squares inside the map. The circles represent the categories
into which results are grouped. The squares represent the articles. To open an
article's citation, click on a square.
Page last updated
Friday, January 25, 2008
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