This month’s focus will be on the Vocations and Careers Collection. I am moving away from the “In Context” databases and moving toward this extremely useful database that will provide you and your students access to journals and magazines, periodicals focused on the specific industries. This is an Info Trac collection which provides users to choose between Basic, Subject Guide, Publication and Advanced Search options. You and your students will be able to use Topic Finder to help define the search and access specific material in a faster and more efficient way.
Using Vocations and Career Collection should be the first database to consider for shops that may not have a specific database dedicated to their field such as (Automotive, Carpentry, Computer Information Systems, Cosmetology, Early Ed., Electrical, Engineering, Graphics, HVAC, Metal Fabrication, and Plumbing).
Working with Results Right Column:
Content Types -There are various types of media content retrieved for your results. Each result will yield various media types. At the top you will notice a breakdown of the number of artifacts from each Content Type for your particular search. (Please note that your specific search may need to be refined to yield better results). Searching within Results – This feature is very good for finding specific key words from within all the results currently on display. This is a big time saver when you are not finding what you thought should have come up.
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Limiting your Search- As previously noted, it is best to get to information that best answers your informational need. The search limiters enable you to make adjustments that will fine tune your results.
Subjects - I highly recommend you expand (by pressing the + button) the subjects results that come up. This will give you a much broader picture of the options you have going further and fine-tuning your quest for information. For example when I searched for Carpentry my subjects list included (Carpentry (249); Woodworking (77); Construction industry (64); Residential construction (33); HVAC industry (30); Woodworking industry (29); Housing (27); Woodworking tools (25); Construction (24); Tools (24); Do it yourself work (21) Home remodeling (21); Saws (20); Homesteading (17); Building materials industry (16); Machinery industry (15); Forest products industry (14); Tool industry (14); Architectural services (13); Furniture industry (13); Movies (13); Doors (11); Industrial equipment industry (11); Mechanical contractors (11); Architects (10); Furniture (10); Furniture making (10); Power tools (10); Restaurants (10)
Military training (9); Occupational safety and health (9); Supermarkets (9) Writers (9); Engineers (8); Interior design (8); Joinery (8); skilled labor (8) Software (8); Woodworking machinery (8); Cabinet work (7); Hand tools (7); Plumbing industry (7); Publishing industry (7); Soldiers (7); Architectural design (6); Buildings (6); Circular saws (6); Computer industry (6); Contractors (6); Decks (Architecture) Document Type – Here I suggest to expand the retrieved results as many types of documents are brought to your attention and you may least expect these types of documents. You may find that many are irrelevant to your specific search query. Article (821); Brief article (217); Book review (47); Cover story (29); Interview (28); Column (25); Movie review (17); Product/service evaluation (17); Buyers guide (16); Directory (16); Company overview (12); Letter to the editor (12); Bibliography (7); Biography (6); Children's review (6); Editorial (6)
Theater review (5); Advertisement (4); Excerpt (3); Industry overview (3); Critical essay (2); Abstract (1); Audiobook review (1); Awards list (1); Cartoon (1); Instructions (1); List (1); Obituary (1); Organization overview(1); Recommended readings (1); Restaurant review (1); Video recording review (1); Viewpoint essay (1); Young adult review (1) |
Analyze with Topic Finder:
Pressing the Topic Finder tool at this point will sort out the information displayed on the screen within the two options available in Topic Finder (Tile view or Wheel view). To learn more about how to best use TopiC Finder click this link to ItsLearning lesson. |
Advance Search:
Web search engines have turned many information seekers to compromise with regards to the results that are brought to them. The more control you have over your search criteria, the better results you will be able to extract. All Gale Cengage databases have Advanced Search capabilities enabling you to have as much control as possible over your search results. Optimal results may be achieved through good use of Boolean logic operations and adding as many rows as needed. |
Here is a brief clip explaining the simple way to use Boolean Search operators.
If you would like further help with Advance Search please let me know. |
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