1. Introduction to Searching Databases and Records

2. What is a database? A database is a large, organized collection of information. Addresses Recipes Citations to books Photographs Full-text articles A database can be printed or electronic.

4. How are databases organized? Each item in a database is called a record. In the phone book, a record contains the name of a company, the address and phone number. In a catalog, a record contains the citation to an item (mostly books), subject headings and location. In an article database (index), a record usually contains the citation and an abstract.

5. How are databases organized? Printed databases, like phone books, are searched by browsing for items grouped by subject or in alphabetical order.

6. How are databases organized? Online databases are searched by matching search terms to the content of the record. To increase searching effectiveness, records are organized into fields.

7. Fields Keyword – searches multiple fields at one time (title, abstract, subject heading); broadest type of search Title – searches just the words in the title Author – searches the for authors; usually lastname firstname

8. What are subject headings? “Controlled vocabulary” Set of standard terms used to describe the contents of items in a database. A term in a controlled vocabulary may describe a person, an event, an idea, or a place. Often referred to as subject headings or descriptors. Differ from database to database.

9. Why use subject headings? Subject headings draw together under a single heading all the material that is available on a particular topic regardless of the words used by the author.

10. Example? For example, let's say you're trying to find all the information you can in the library on the topic of the World War I. World War I? First World War? WWI? World War One? Great War? War to end all Wars?

11. Subject headings in the Catalog The UW Libraries Catalog and most libraries use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The complete list of LCSH are published in 5 volumes. WWI books: World War 1914-1918 WWI books on American women: World War 1914-1918 Women United States

12. Create a Record Quickly skim through article and create a record with the following info: Author Title of article 2-3 sentence abstract (summary) 3 subject headings (from list)

13. Mock Searches Author:harris james Keywords:trenches Keywords: mustard gas Keywords:john singer sargent Subject:chemical weapons history Subject:world war I poisonous gas Subject:gases asphyxiating and poisonous war use Subject:war in art

14. Research Library

15. Pubmed