Internet 101/102: Untangling the Web

welcome | bibliography | glossary

I. How does it work?

II. What's really out there?

III. How can I search?

IV. Why should I evaluate?

V. How do I cite sources?

a. web directories | b. search engines | c. specialty tools | d. library databases

How can I search? -- library databases

The UTSA Library subscribes to several commercial databases on the Internet which provide full-text magazine, journal and newspaper articles.

How they work
periodical and article titles, author names, abstracts, full-texts are keyword indexed
also organized by subject headings assigned from a controlled list of vocabulary terms
Advantages
items come from traditional print publications = edited, etc.
extremely organized with many access points to information sources
Disadvantages
copyright--not all articles available full-text (but users can look up the source's title in the UCAT to see if we own in paper)
years of coverage may be limited
only UTSA users can have access
Features
standardized vocabulary for searching
offers basic and advanced searching (see Tip Sheets for Resources)

Here are just a few of the full-text and/or full-image commercial databases that UTSA users can access via the Internet:

Britannica Online -- academic encyclopedia covering all subjects
ProQuest -- article database covering many subjects
Academic Universe -- database covering many subjects
ScienceDirect -- article database covering the sciences
JSTOR -- article database covering the social sciences/humanities
Newsbank Newsfile -- newspaper article database
netLibrary -- academic books

For a complete listing of ALL library databases see the Databases & Article Searching page