MeL Minute - Academic Search Complete

By -

From Ann Rau, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Lansing Community College and the MeL Team:

Academic Search Complete is the fourth most popular MeL eResource with over a half million retrievals in the last three months. Have you checked it out since it went live on Oct 1? 
Anne Rau of Lansing Community College writes: “My instructor says I have to get peer-reviewed and scholarly articles. Help!!!” This has to be one of the most frequently asked questions academic librarians hear from students. Here at the LCC Library, one of our go to databases for this is Academic Search Complete from EBSCO. It was added to the Michigan eLibrary this past fall. It covers a wide variety of subjects, so it can be used for almost any program of study.
For Beginning and Experienced Searchers 
What I especially like about Academic Search Complete is the one stop shopping to find scholarly/peer-reviewed/trade journal articles on so many diverse subjects.  I have observed that students find the interface easy to navigate and find relevant articles quickly. A really nice thing about Academic Search Complete is that it is good for both beginning and experienced searchers. Search options and limiters are displayed without being too intimidating. Novice searchers will be able to get relevant results without getting too fancy. Experienced searchers can use search techniques such as Boolean/Phrase searching, and choose search fields such as: Author, Journal Name, Author Supplied Keywords and much more. Limiters include: Document Type, Number of Pages, Publication type and more. 
Content and Features 
The database is a great place to go for STEM research. In addition to scholarly and peer-reviewed articles, Academic Search Complete also contains material from trade journals that support our students in Business, Law, Fire Science, and many of our other programs. Images will appear in search results, as well as video from the Associated Press. This makes it visually appealing, and students can enhance their projects with multimedia elements.  
Results can be saved/shared in the ways we have all come to expect, including cloud storage and social media. The citation tool generates citations from MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian and more. Of course, we always tell the students to double check those citations! 
I have focused on the peer-reviewed/scholarly/trade journals, but Academic Search Complete contains full-text articles from popular magazines and newspapers as well.  So if you have a stressed out student beginning an assignment, Academic Search Complete can be a great resource to get that research ball rolling. (It’s good when you aren’t stressed out too!)  

Popular posts from this blog

Google Script - Create a Drop-Down List from Spreadsheet Column

By -
Image
(Updated on 3/21/2017 - triggers have been moved!) ( I just created a new related post on how to create a multiple choice  question on the form that a bit simplified - takes the "other" answers in a multiple choice question on a form, and updates the multiple choice options with those as options.) I guess it was only a matter of time before I ended up dabbling with Google Scripts.  Today I was asked by a teacher how he could populate a drop-down list on his Google Form from data on a spreadsheet - and have it update as he changed the data.  Not finding an add-on for this (why recreate the wheel? :-)  I explored creating a script.  And...discovered that this task is not too hard! To do this yourself - 1. Create your form.   Really important step.  Make sure to create your drop-down item and give it a title, but you do not need to add any options to it (because later you will populate it from the spreadsheet). 2. Create the spreadsheet where your list will reside. Yo
Read more

Google Calendar - How to Share Your Calendar Via Link

By -
Image
Google Calendar provides a couple ways you can share your calendar.  The first way you will see below provides a link that lets another person subscribe to your calendar.  They will need to be logged into their Google account, and it will display YOUR calendar along with their own. (Personally, I find this method the best for adding my kids' and husband's events so I see our families events all in one calendar.)  The second method displays your calendar in a browser window.  This is probably the preferred Teacher method for sharing with parents. (Here is a video on How to Share Your Calendar Via a Link .) When in your Google Calendar: Click on the Options menu (stacked dots) for the calendar you want to share - Select Settings and sharing - Click on Access permissions on the left side - Click on the Get shareable link - Note that who can see the calendar with this link depends on the access permissions you have set right above.  For example, with the setti
Read more

Google Mail - Create Calendar Event that Includes Email Message

By Anonymous -
Image
There are many time I get an email that I want to make into an event on my calendar - both to make sure I block out the time, and to move the information out of an email in my inbox into the event.  There is a feature called "Create event" that let's you do this - it is available in the More options when you are viewing the message.  Once you select create event, Google opens up a new window, loads your calendar, and creates an event with the message subject as the name of the event, and the body of the message as the description within the event: You are then able to edit the date/time as needed to finish creating the event.  One caveat...it adds everyone that was part of the message to the Guest list (see above in red box), so unless you want it to be a group event you will need to click the x next to everyone's name but yours.
Read more

Google Documents - Creating Page Anchors (aka Bookmarks)

By -
Image
There are times in a Google Document you want to provide links to specific areas within the page and  a table of contents doesn't fit the bill. (See how to create & use a table of contents here .)  When this happens, you will need to employ the use of page anchors. Anchors basically make a linkable spot on the page.  They are pretty easy to create, and can be linked tho both within the page and from outside the page.  Within a Google Document these are called Bookmarks. Here is how to set them up: 1. Put your cursor where you want the anchor/bookmark 2. Go to the Insert Menu, select Bookmark - this will add a little blue flag to the location That's it!  You can create as many as you need in the document. To get rid of an anchor/bookmark that you no longer want: 1. Click in the location you added it.  A pop-up should appear 2. Click Remove To use an anchor/bookmark within the document: 1. Type the text you want linked to the anchor/bookmark 2. Hi
Read more

Google Contacts - Newest Area to Get Some "Google Love"

By Anonymous -
Image
Be ready!  Your Google Contacts is about to update its looks.  I don't know about you, but I don't go to Google Contacts often.  I just don't like it.  If you need a refresher, this is what it looks (looked) like - Looked & felt very...dated.  This morning in going to one of my Google accounts, I got the pop-up window in my contacts.  Here is a screenshot of the new look - Hoping that the Google Love includes more than just the interface.  If there are any big changes that make Contacts more easily managed & navigated, you can be sure to see another blog post or two about it!
Read more