How to use Academic Search Premier

1. Welcome
to EMCC Library’s
Database Basics
USING LIBRARY DATABASES CAN MAKE
STUDYING, WRITING PAPERS AND DOING PROJECTS A
LOT EASIER! THEY REALLY ARE SIMPLE TO USE ONCE
YOU KNOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THEM.
WE WILL FOCUS ON USING ACADEMIC SEARCH
PREMIER. IT IS ONE OF THE LIBRARY’S MOST USEFUL
RESOURCES. ONCE YOU LEARN A FEW TECHNIQUES
YOU’LL BE ABLE TO APPLY THEM TO SEARCHING
OTHER SOURCES TOO!

2. In this presentation you will learn:
 What library databases are
 When and why to use them
 How to do a basic search
 Database tools that refine your search
 Sorting your search results
 Saving and sharing articles
Click the stars for shortcuts to review each topic.
The home icon will return you to this page.

3. So What is a Database?
 Databases are simply collections of information that
have been arranged to make searching easy and
efficient.
A good example is the contact
list on your cell phone. You
can enter people’s numbers
and find them again either
alphabetically, by speed dial
settings or categories like
“family” or “school”.

4. Why are library databases special?
 Libraries pay subscription fees for their databases
 The material they contain is not free on the web
 Search tools help you find what you need
 Information quality has been judged by experts
 Some databases gather a lot of sources on one topic
 Others cover a broad range of subjects
 Whole articles can often be read immediately

5. Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier is a database
produced by EBSCO and covers a broad
range of topics. It includes more than
8000 newspaper, magazine, and
journal titles ranging from 1975 to the
present. Most Mississippi public
libraries subscribe to it. As a student
you can use it anywhere you have an
internet connection through EMCC’s
library.

6. Why use a database?
 If you have a question to answer or a point you want
to make, sometimes you have to dig for a little
information to fill out your argument.

7. Isn’t an internet search faster?
 Well, yes and no. You can find a lot of information
very quickly. Finding useful information for your
project can be a bit harder.
Winner!

8. The right tools for the job
 A library database won’t give you quite so many
sources, but you don’t need to worry about whether
or not they’re accurate. It will also have features that
help you sort and manage the information sources
you find.
Advanced Search
Tools
Indexes Content updated daily
Scholarly Nationally Respected
Journals Newspapers

9. Getting Started
When you begin a basic search on Academic Search
Premier this is what you see. Click the stars to read more
about some important features.

10. Save yourself some time
Unlike an internet search, you don’t have to get a big list of
everything and sort it out yourself. Eliminate what you know
you don’t want before you search. Click stars for details.

11. Know before you type
There are a few tricks you should know before typing in a keyword. These
definitely work on Academic Search Premier. Other databases use very similar
commands, and they might even help on internet searches. Try them!
Boolean terms Use quotation marks to Parentheses can
AND, OR, and search for phrases. If you nest searches.
NOT should be don’t the words will be The operation
in upper case searched for as if the term inside them is
letters. Except AND was between them. done first. (rivers
for these the “Rescue Dogs” will search OR lakes) AND
program for information on “native plants”
usually ignores specially trained dogs. finds information
small words Rescue Dogs will find on fresh water,
and items using those two then looks at
capitalization. words separately. plants.

12. Wild Cards and Truncation
When there are closely related words with different endings, sometimes you want
to search under all of them. Take the words child, children, and childhood for
example. Instead if typing in all three words, you can enter:
This is called “truncation”! One little asterisk tells the program to search for all
variations at once. An asterisk can also stand in for whole words inside a phrase.
A “Wildcard” uses the “?”or “#” symbols to replace or imply letters within words.
Wom?n will search for both woman and women.
Colo#r will search for our word color and the British colour.

13. Putting it all together
Ok, now it’s time to use that search box! Lets say we’ve been studying about
teenage obesity in the United States. We need information for a class
presentation about how the problem is viewed in other places. If we apply
the tips we’ve seen, our search terms will look something like this:
(adolescent OR teen*) AND obesity NOT “United States”
We will use the default settings on the rest of the page for now.

14. Search Results
Wow! More than 4000 articles are a lot to look at!
Using the slider and check boxes on the left side of
the results screen will have a dramatic effect.
We will choose “Full Text” articles only. Items from
scholarly journals which are less than 5 years old
will probably be plenty to work with.

15. Refining your results
Now there are almost 3000 fewer things to review. That’s
an improvement.
Continue scrolling down the left side of the results page
and you will find other facets to use as limiters.
If you choose one and think it eliminates too many articles
just click its button in the “limiters” section to reverse it.
Our presentation is going to be on the psychological
impacts of obesity, so we will choose that as a limiter.

16. Manageable Results
Now we have 17 articles to review for possible use in our
project. They’re all available in full text so we can see them
right away.
We also know they are up to date, accurate, and won’t be
cluttered with advertising or other distractions.
That’s really great! Now let’s look at the rest of the results
page and see what other tools we can make use of.

17. Making the most of your results
Even after you’ve found your list of articles, Academic Search Premier still
offers more research help. Click the stars for details on some of them.

18. Saving Searches
There are some benefits to signing in for a free
account. Saving your search results is easy.
There is a link to your search results which you
can email to yourself on another computer or
share with others if you are working in a
group.
EBSCO can even inform you when new articles
on your topic are added to the database!
You can find this tab on the upper right-hand
corner of your results list.

19. Saving Articles
When you select an item from your results list, this tool bar
will appear on the right-hand side of your screen. Some of
these features, like “Add to Folder” and “Create Note” are
designed to work with an account.
You can print, email or save your articles without signing
in if you prefer.
“Cite” is another great time-saving tool. It will give you a
proper bibliographic citation that you can cut and paste
into your finished paper or presentation!

20. Thank you for reading EMCC’s
Database Basics
WE HOPE YOU FOUND THIS OVERVIEW OF
ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER HELPFUL.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT THE
LIBRARY IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS.
GOOD LUCK IN YOUR COLLEGE CAREER AND
REMEMBER WE ARE HERE TO HELP IF YOU
NEED US!
Powerpoint Presentation developed by Lisa Justis, 2 May 2012