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EBSCOhost Quick Start Tutorial

Online Library Home > Help Doing Research > Research Tutorials

The steps and screen shots displayed below will show how to access and do a basic search for articles using one or more of the EBSCOhost databases via the Empire State College library.

ACCESS
Before You Begin
If you are unfamiliar with accessing the college's research databases or entering your college login, review the "Access" quick start tutorial.

To Access EBSCOhost

  1. Go to library's home page at www.esc.edu/library.
  2. Click on "All Research Databases" in first column.
  3. Look for "EBSCO" in the table (listed alphabetically) and click on one of the options.
  4. Enter your college login and password.
If you choose the "view/search all" option, you will see the following page where you can view what each database covers and select one or more what databases to search:
    EBSCOhost Choose databases screen


SEARCH

The default option is "Basic Search." You can also search by keyword, subject, journal title (publications). You can see and select these and other options in the EBSCO toolbar (green and blue tabs) below:

    EBSCOhost Toolbar

Once in the Basic Search interface (shown below), use the "Find" text box and other options below it to formulate your search. Here are some basic search tips:
    • Put double quotes around any search phrase or exact combination of keywords (e.g.; "United States of America" or "social psychology").
    • Use AND between two keywords or phrases to search for articles containing both terms. (e.g.; Sumatra and tsunami).
    • Use OR between keywords to search for articles containing either term (e.g.; teaching or pedagogy).
Limit Options
    • Full Text: limit your search results to those items that are available in full-text within EBSCO.
    • Peer Reviewed: (also known as scholarly or refereed) refers to articles from journals that have been critically assessed by experts in the author's field. This ensures that the content is as valid and reliable as possible.
    • Other Limiters (not shown below): publication type (periodical, newspaper, book, etc.), publication title and date of publication.

    EBSCO Basic Search screen


RESULTS

To view an article, click on the hyperlinked title:

EBSCO results page

Result Page Options:
  • Number of Results: shows the number of articles your search retrieved.
  • Pages: allows you to jump to other sets of pages if your results list is large. The default is ten at a time. You can increase this by clicking the "Preferences" link in the upper right corner.
  • Sort by: allows you to sort your results by date (the default), source (journal title) or relevance.
  • Add list:: click the "Add" link to the right of an article to mark the citation for later viewing or printing (this mark list will be deleted when you sign out).
  • ArticleLinker: if the article is not available in full-text, use this icon to automatically search for the article in all full-text databases available through the library.

ARTICLE DISPLAY

Once in a specific article, you have several options for saving, printing or viewing it:
  • Print:: reformats the article (including the full-text if available in HTML) which will allow you to select print options and send the document to your printer.
  • Email: to send the citation, abstract and or full-text if available to an e-mail address (your own or someone else's).
  • Save: saves the article(s) to your computer.
  • Add to Folder: adds the article to a marked list for later viewing or printing.
  • Formats: displays the file formats the article is available in (if full-text is available, it will show the HTML and or PDF (adobe acrobat) Full Text options. Click on your preference to view the full-text.
  • Additional Searching: if you click on any of the links within the citation (author, source, subject terms) you can generate a new search on that specific author, title, subject, etc.

EBSCOhost abstract display

For help using additional and more advanced search and results options, click on the "Help" hyperlink located in the top right corner of the database tool bar. Return to navigation links

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