This short guide shows you how to use the Coos County Libraries' electronic databases provided by Gale to access literally thousands of magazines, newspaper, and journal articles. The guide walks you through how to access, browse, and search the databases to find articles and publications of interest.
Handwritten Text Recognition for manuscripts and early printed texts
Gale/Cengage Databases Quick Guide
1. GALE/CENGAGE DATABASES
Quick Guide
Magazines, Newspapers, and Reference books
Mostly full text articles, with pictures
On the Internet, go to Coastline at www.cooslibraries.org and click on
the “Electronic Resources” tab above the Catalog Quick Search area.
In the Gale Databases list, click on a database such as InfoTrac
OneFile, Health & Wellness Resource Center, Academic OneFile, Kids InfoBits,
InfoTrac Junior or Senior edition, or Informe (en español). Please note that
the instructions below apply primarily to the magazine and newspaper article
databases. Databases with information from reference books or designed for
kids, students, or nurses have different formats.
If getting into GALE/CENGAGE from outside a library, when prompted
for “Patron ID,” type in the 14-digit barcode number (no spaces) from your
Coastline library card, then click on “Proceed.”
BROWSE PUBLICATIONS
If you want to know whether a database contains a specific title, click
on the “Browse Publications” tab. On the “Find Title” line, type the first part
of the title of the publication, then click “Go.” Click on the title to see the
years indexed (citation with perhaps a short summary) and years available in
full text.
2. SEARCH
If you are not on the page with “Dashboard” and “Search the site” box
headings, click on the Home tab.
The databases can be searched either by keywords or by subjects that
have been chosen to describe the article. To search by keyword, in the Find
line, type keywords for your topic, click on the bullet next to the word
“keyword,” then click the Search button. You can put double quotemarks
around a phrase, as in the example shown above. Advanced Search is also
available by clicking on the “Advanced Search” tab.
You can also expand your search for broader results. On the search
line on the Home page for the database, after typing in your search words,
click on the circle next to “Entire document” below the line, then click on Go.
This broadens the search compared with “keyword” search, which just
searches the title, author, subjects, and summary of the article, or compared
with a subject search, which just searches subjects assigned to an article.
You can focus your search with a subject search, which just searches
subjects assigned to an article. Type your subject in the Find line then click
on the circle next to “Subject” below the Find line, and click Search.
3. To browse subject headings, click on the Browse Subjects tab, then type
in a subject.
In the list of subject terms, if there is a tiny + (plus) sign to the left of your
subject, click on it to see more specific subjects related to your topic.
When you’ve clicked on a subject, the search results will show magazine
articles in order by most recently published on top. You can click on a tab
above the results also to choose academic journal articles, newspaper
articles, multimedia, and more.
You can also limit your search for more specific results by choosing
options in the Refine Results box.
4. ARTICLES
At the bottom of each entry in the results list, Full text, PDF, Citation,
or Abstract may be shown. Full text has the text of the article, but PDF is
preferred if available because it is exactly like the entire published article
with pictures, tables, etc. A citation is only the basic information useful for
finding the article in a magazine in the library or through interlibrary loan.
Abstract has a citation plus a short summary of the article.
PRINTING
You can print 6 pages free in the North Bend Library from
GALE/CENGAGE.
CHANGE DATABASES
To move from one database to another without having to enter your
barcode number again, click on the Change Databases tab at the very top of
the web page.
DZ/BN 3/31/10