EBSCO

EBSCO is a company that produces high quality online periodical databases. These web-based resources provide access to millions of full-text articles from scholarly journals and popular magazines. EBSCO databases include:

• Academic Search Premier 1984 - present
  Provides full text for nearly 3,200 scholarly publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
  
• CINAHL 1982 - present
  The Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, covers over 1200 professional journals in nursing, 17 allied health disciplines, and health sciences librarianship. In addition, CINAHL offers access to healthcare books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software in nursing, audiovisuals, and book chapters.
  
• AltHealthWatch 1990 - present
  This alternative health database provides full text for nearly 140 publications in its collection, including full text for many peer-reviewed journals.
  
• ERIC
  ERIC, the U.S. Department of Education Educational Resource Information Center database, contains citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals, as well as full text of more than 2,200 digests.
  
• Business Source Premier 1922 - present
  A comprehensive, business periodical database that includes scholarly journals and business periodicals covering topics such as management, economics, finance, accounting, international business and much more.
• MEDLINE
  Authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more.
  
• Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  Provides nearly 520 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for over 550 journals.
  
• Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection
  A comprehensive database with nearly 480 full text titles covering topics such as emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.
  
• Military & Government Collection
  Designed to offer current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, this database offers a collection of periodicals, academic journals, and other content pertinent to the increasing needs of those sites.

Getting Started
From the library's webpage http://library.mwcc.edu click on Databases, and after choosing the appropriate on-campus or off-campus access, click on the EBSCO database title in either the alphabetic or subject arranged list of databases. (Remember, off-campus access requires a valid library barcode number)

Searching

Basic Search (default search)
This search will look for your keywords in author, title, source (journal or magazine) and subject, and display a list of articles.
Example: asthma and children

Advanced Search
Click on Advanced Search tab at the top of the page to search using indexes of specific fields such as author, journal or title.

Limiting
Use the Limit functions below the search box to limit your search to find, for example, only Full Text or Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) articles, only articles from a particular Publication (Journal) or only publications issued during specific Date ranges.

Truncation
To find all words with the same root, use the asterisk as a truncator.
Example: school* finds school, schools, schoolbook, etc.

Viewing Search Results
Use the blue triangle-arrows to move through the pages of citations. To view full text articles click on the HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text links. To view a scanned image of the page (generally not preferable as it requires Adobe Acrobat software) click on PDF Full Text

Note: If your article is not available full text, click on the Check other databases for Full Text link to see if there is full text coverage in a different database.

Printing, Emailing or Downloading:

1. One record at a time: Display full-text, if available, by clicking on the HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text links.
Or
Several records at once: While viewing citations, mark the records you wish to retrieve by clicking on the word Add, located to the right of each listed record. When finished selecting articles, click on the link that reads Folder has … items, located at the top of the screen.

Then …

2. Click on the appropriate link at the top of the screen: Print, Email, or Save to Disk. On the next screen, check that the settings for options are as desired, and then click the Print, Send or Save button. [If you chose Email, enter your email address and an optional subject. Using the default settings, records will automatically be sent in full-text if available.]

3. At the next screen, if printing or downloading:
Printing: If you chose the Print option, click OK in the print dialogue box. Note: in the MWCC Library, printing requires a copy card and costs 10¢ per page.

Downloading to disk: If you chose the Save option, click File on the browser, and go to Save as. [If using an MWCC lab computer please be sure to save to your floppy disk in the a: drive, since files saved to the c: drive will be erased when the computer is shut off.]

If you need assistance, please ask at the Reference desk, call us at: (978) 630-9338 or, email us at: library@mwcc.mass.edu

Mt. Wachusett Community College Library
Updated 7/14/04