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Online Collections (Databases) Help

A few tips to successful use of our online collections...

 

Access

To access our collections use your Hutt City Libraries card number and password. This is the same password that you will use to access your customer ('patron') record online.

For information on joining see About Us. If you are already a member you can get a password/PIN from any of our Libraries or by phoning (04) 570 6633.

 

Search Tips

Search options presented?

• What kind of entry is asked for - a person’s name?...a title or topic keyword?...a name containing or beginning with the keywords? If you want pictures is there an image option?

Search words - how well do they describe exactly what you are seeking?

• If you are looking for info on say: sports in ancient Greece then don’t just enter 'Greece' - use all the terms required i.e. 'greece and ancient and sports'.
  If your first search comes up with little then you may need to broaden it eg. to 'ancient Greece' .
  If your first terms fail think of alternative words.

Common words

• Avoid common words like 'and, or with, an, the, for...' as these are not usually searchable unless between “...”

Connectors (operators)

• Does the database require you to use ‘AND’ between search terms of a topic? Most do - if you don’t it may become a ‘phrase search’ [see below]

Phrase/Name searching

• Most databases give more precise searching of these by using "... ” around a name (eg. “bob dylan”) or a phrase (eg. “long white cloud”). Some though ask for specific ways to enter a name.

Full text or Abstract/Citation?

• Some databases will give you an option of limiting a search to 'full text' - select this if you want to retrieve the whole article online, not just a reference to it.
  NB. some magazine articles have only citations, not the ‘full text’.

Refining your search

• If you get too many irrelevant results then look for suggested terms on the left sidebar and/or ways to 'limit' your search such as by date, type of publication etc.
• Find one relevant article in the list, see what subject headings have been assigned to it in the full record, then search on these.

Looking for a specific magazine?

• To browse articles in a specific journal/magazine look for the 'title/source list' or 'publications' link.

New Zealand content

• Note that except for Newztext and ANZRC  the databases are largely North American in content. Often there will be little NZ material or that found may be dated or poor in coverage of issues. InfoTrac does include some NZ journals and while Index New Zealand covers most it doesn't provide the content of the articles, only the references.

Other help?

• Click on the 'Help' or 'Search Tips' link (there always is one!) if you don't get any results.

For help in getting full value searching these rich resources phone the Research Team (04) 570 2713 or come into the Central Library for a free tutorial.

 

Technical Notes

To ensure effective access you will need MS Internet Explorer v 5.5 or higher, Netscape v 7.x or higher, Firefox 1.0 (or equivalent browser software) and browser support for Javascript and cookies.

Many of the full text articles are in PDF format. To open these you will need an Acrobat Reader installed. Some PDF files are quite large and you may experience considerable delay opening this from a home PC without broadband access. Have patience or where there is an html option choose the latter.

There may be impediments if you have set up a personal firewall on your PC or are accessing through a corporate firewall. This may be indicated by 'authentication failures', 'invalid....URL' or repeated requests for entry data. If this is happening contact us or your corporate IT support.
If you don't understand any of the above, please Contact Us.

 

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