EBSCO. A small workshop to use it.

What is EBSCO?
•Online periodical database
•Thousands of up-to-date articles and essays from around the world, available at the click of a mouse.
•Can be accessed from school or home.
•Saint Joseph’s School current subscription includes this suscription to Ebsco database
•Why? Because is dedicated to find the best possible information for school research

Before starting, it is important to identify exactly what it is you are searching. EBSCO is not a database perse; rather, it is an interface that allows you to search a number of different databases at the same time. Because of its large, interdiscinplinary scope, you can use EBSCO to find journal, magazine and newspaper articles on a wide variety of subjects. EBSCO allows you to search many databases simultaneously.

- Title Search in EBSCO
In EBSCO you can search either by article title or journal name. They are very different searches, so it's important to know the difference between the two.

- Author Search in Ebsco
You should conduct an author search from the Advanced Search screen. In Ebsco, you must enter the last name first. The author's first name is optional, and you can enter just the first initial of the author's first name if that's all the information you have. Note: Your search results will be the same regardless of whether you capitalize the first letters of the author's name.

- Keyword Search: Using the Basic Search Screen
As in most database searches, a keyword search in Ebsco does not search every word inside every article indexed within the database. It only searches the information that is in the fields of each record, including the abstract. For more information about database records and fields click here to access our Library Catalog tutorial.
Ebsco's Basic Search screen automatically defaults to a keyword search, and then sorts the results in descending order by publication date, with most recent articles displayed first.

- Keyword Search: Using the Boolean Operator AND
The Boolean operator AND allows you to locate items that are about two different concepts or ideas. This type of search will help focus your topic and narrow your search results.

- Phrase Search: What is it?A phrase search is necessary when your words must be read in an exact order to accurately convey the meaning of your search. Some examples might be:
1. an historical event: desert storm
2. a geographcial location: grand canyon
3. a specific structure: empire state building
4. a proper name: Julia Roberts

- Subject Headings: What Are They?Subject Headings in a record describe the main content of that particular item. They are useful because keyword searching can sometimes retrieve records that are only slightly related to your topic.
Subject headings help standardize the words we use to describe a concept. When you search for records by these assigned subject headings, you will receive a more precise set of results. 
- Limiting Your Results
In Ebsco, you can limit your search results by date, format, type, etc. Limiting by various fields will reduce your overall search results and make them more specific to your individual research needs.

- Truncation: Using Symbols to Expand your Search
Using a truncation symbol in your search terms tells the system to search for the word you enter along with any other words that have the same root. In Ebsco, the asterisk (*) is the recognized truncation symbol.

- Saving Searches: Marking Your Records
One useful feature in Ebsco is that you can save your search results. As you review your list of items, mark the articles that you think may be useful by clicking on the folder to the right of each citation.

- Saving Searches: Ebsco allows you to save records and view your search history. To save records, mark those that you need and download for printing, or save them to a disk, portable drive, or your student server space. You can also access your research summary by clicking on the "Search History/Alerts" tab at the top of your results list.