Interpreting search
results in bibliographic databases
Evaluating search results
Most systems have several ways of displaying your results. Often the search results are
first displayed as a list of brief records, like the example below:
| Notice this list of brief records includes
only an abbreviated magazine title and partial article title. |
DATABASE: ReadGuideAbs
SEARCH: deforestation FOUND 685 Records
|
| NO. |
SOURCE |
TITLE |
YEAR |
| 9 |
Sierra |
Shopper, spare that tree |
1996 |
| 10 |
Ariz Higw |
Declining number of tanagers s |
1996 |
| 11 |
NY Time |
It's Indian's vs. loggers in N |
1996 |
| 12 |
Vital Speeches |
Tropical deforestation |
1996 |
| 13 |
Nat'l Geogr World |
Siberian tiger |
1996 |
| To view a record, type record
number. |
|
| You will
need to view the full record to evaluate the information.. e.g. if you were
interested in #13, you would select that record. |
Below is the full record display for #13. The information in the
Abstract and Subject fields should help you decide whether this article is relevant to
your topic. Also note the date and title of publication (source, in this case) to see if
the material is appropriate for your information needs.
| Notice the
subject headings for this item which indicate the major topics covered in this article. If you topic was "deforestation", this article
would NOT be relevant. "Deforestation" is only mentioned in the abstract. |
| AUTHOR: |
Sunquist, Fiona. |
| TITLE: |
Siberian tiger (cover story) |
| SOURCE: |
National Geographic World v.249 (May '96) p. 19-26 |
| DATE: |
1996 |
| ABSTRACT |
One serious threat to tiger survival is the destruction of
their habitat by deforestation. Another is the loss of such
prey as deer and wild pigs because of illegal hunting.
Currently, however, the biggest threat to Siberian tigers
comes from poachers, who can make a lot of money from their prey. |
SUBJECT:
|
Endangered species - Animals.
Wildlife conservation - Siberia (Russia).
Tigers |
|
Interpreting search results
The full record display also provides the bibliographic information you need to get the
complete article.
| Here is the
information you need: author, article, title, and most importantly, the full magazine
title, issue date and pages. |
| AUTHOR: |
Sunquist, Fiona. |
| TITLE: |
Siberian tiger (cover story) |
| SOURCE: |
National Geographic World v.249 (May '96) p. 19-26 |
| DATE: |
1996 |
| ABSTRACT |
One serious threat to tiger survival is the destruction of
their habitat by deforestation.... |
|
Locating the item
Once you have the bibliographic information, you must check the library's online
catalog to locate the actual item.
For example, if you are looking for a book, you search the library's online catalog
using the author or title access point.
If you are looking for an article, it is important to remember you must search the
online catalog for the title of the publication, not the title of the
article..
|
