EBSCO Subject Searching

CHOOSE DATABASE

The Harold B. Lee Library has resources and materials specific to each discipline at BYU. You can find resources specific to YOUR discipline by going to the Subject Guides Tab from the main library website. 

For this example we will use the Psychology Subject Guide. Here you will find databases useful for any of the Psychology subjects.  If you are unsure of which database to use, you can contact the subject librarian located to the right. The primary database for psychology is PsycINFO; however, the database also covers the family sciences as well. Though PsycINFO is accessed through EBSCO, PsycINFO was created and is maintained by the American Psychological Association.

The library has over 50 databases accessible through EBSCO.  Click on the Choose Databases option to show all of these databases. 99% of the journals in PsycINFO are peer reviewed.  PsycINFO also contains citations to books, book chapters, and dissertations.

ADVANCED SEARCHING

From PsycINFO’s home page in EBSCO, you can enter keywords using the basic search or the advanced search. The advanced search will allow you to separate your research query for like terms. All like terms or synonyms can be searched with an “OR”. The root word and the truncation symbol (*) will allow you to find all words that start with the same root word such as teen, teens, teenager, teenagers. Let’s do a search using OR and the truncation symbol. Citations with like terms and words with the same root word will be found.

Subjects are listed in most databases. For a concept that has many synonyms use a subject search. The thesaurus provides a controlled vocabulary for like terms. The subject is applied to all documents on the topic, regardless of what the author used in the title or abstract. To go directly to a list of subjects click on the Thesaurus button. The subject list can also give you ideas on how to broaden or narrow your topic. We will narrow our search to “How communication with parents can effect adolescent development.” First we will search for parent. We find subjects specific to our topic. Click on the link for “Parent Child Communication.” Now check the boxes: Parent Child Communication, Father Child Communication, and Mother Child Communication.  Add them to our search box and then click search.

Next we will search for the topic adolescents. Click “Adolescent Development” & choose the box, “Adolescent Development.”  Click Add and then Search.

You can combine searches from the thesaurus using the “Search History/Alerts” button. Here we will combine the searches for parent communication and adolescent development.  

Subject searching is a powerful tool, but not all topics are in the thesaurus. There is not a subject heading specific for Facebook or Myspace, but there are broader terms you could use such as “Online Social Networks”. If you cannot find your topic in the thesaurus you will need to do a keyword search. Type in “Facebook OR Myspace” in the keyword box.

If you cannot find information on your topic, changing the keyword might help expand your search. For example Television gets many more results than T.V.

SUBJECTS ACROSS DATABASES 

As mentioned previously, there are databases specific to most disciplines. Now that we have searched PsycINFO, let’s check out the Sociological Abstracts in the Sociology Subject Guide! Most databases have an Advanced Search Section which can help you expand your search. Don’t forget that like PsycINFO, many databases have a thesaurus search though it may be called “Subjects” or “Headings”.  In this database, the thesaurus can be found under the Search Tools Tab or at the bottom of the Advanced Search screen. Here we will search for the topic, “dating by college students”. The CSA databases make it easier to search like terms with the “OR” with or already between each box on a line.

Using these tools, you can find and use databases at the Harold B. Lee Library for almost all topics or subjects. Don’t forget you can always ask a subject librarian for help by text, email, chat or phone.