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Sidney Martin Library

Research Support

How to Use the Library

Understanding Basics with some Key Definitions


Database: an organized collection of records whose data can be searched to retrieve a record(s) e.g. OPAC (On-line Public Access Catalogue) is a database of the holdings – books, journals, multimedia etc. of the Cave Hill Campus libraries.  Psychinfo is a database of articles published in the field of psychology.


When you retrieve a record in the library’s OPAC you will be pointed to where to find that item on the shelf. When you retrieve a record in an article database like Psychinfo, 90% of the time you will have access to the full text of the article associated with that record. 

Specialised Search Engine: Unlike your general purpose search engines like Yahoo, Google, these search engines tend to generally focus on the scholarly literature in a specialized field of study. Google Scholar is an example of a multidisciplinary search engine.
 

Meta Search Engine: a search engine which executes your search query across several search engines at the same time eg Primo Central, a meta search engine available in UWILinC.

Need help identifying a topic to research?  Click here for some suggestions! »


Useful Research Resources: Online academic research


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