This section of the tutorial provides help on the aspects of using electronic resources that are (in most instances) common to the range of different electronic research tools you might use. For example the information provided here will usually be relevant for Indexes and full text databases.
The term database is used here to describe the type of electronic tool that you (or your institution on your behalf) have subscribed to, such as JSTOR. If you are not using a computer within an educational institution it is normally necessary to first login in order to use this type of tool. The content provided (or cited) in databases has usually been subjected to the same peer-review process as a published printed work.
Information that is specific to the use of freely available websites is covered in the following 'using web resources' section of the tutorial.
This section will help you to:
- access electronic resources using the necessary passwords
- construct a search string using keywords and Boolean operators
- use the extra features that enable you to search databases more effectively
- understand how to evaluate, select and download the results you obtain from searching
- save time and stay up-to-date by using alerting services.
Information about the copyright of electronic resources is available in the copyright section of this tutorial.