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Native American Research Tutorial

First Search: Special Features

Special Features

First Search has many useful features to help you refine your searches and save time.

1. Searching multiple databases.

In the previous lesson, we searched only one database, Wilson Select Plus. You can search more than one database at a time. Let's say we want to find more information about economic development on Indian Reservations. We decide to search Wilson SelectPlus and EconLit at the same time. Go the Advanced Search and click on "List All" under databases on the left side of the screen.

Now click on the databases that you want to search. For more information on each database, you can click on the icon next to each. Then click on select.

This will take you back to the Advanced Search screen. Note that it shows which databases you are currently searching. Enter your search terms.

The results.

Let's take a look at the first result. Note the descriptors listed at the bottom.

Let's take a look at one of the results from Wilson SelectPlus.

Note that the subject headings are quite different for each of these. Each database uses different subject headings or descriptors. Some use Library of Congress Subject Headings, as in the library catalog, while others use their own lists of terms or controlled vocabularies. Thus, when you are searching more than one database at a time, subject headings lose some of their usefulness. Use keywords to search across multiple databases, but remember that you can also use the subject heading/descriptor links to find more related articles in a single database.

2. Limit Features

First Search provides some special tools to limit a search. Let's search Periodical Abstracts for information on Indian gaming. You can select a database from Advanced Search by clicking on the arrow next to the "Search in" box. Let's start with a keyword search, using many terms to describe the topic: gaming, gambling, and casinos. Remember to use the OR operator so that the computer searches for all records with any of these topics.

Results: Note again how many items you get a in general search like this. Click the "Limit" button.

This gives you several options. You can limit to a specific year if you want only the most recent material. Or you can limit by subject headings.

Click on the Limit by Subject Headings.

This provides a list of all the subject headings that appear in the large retrieval set from your keyword search. Scroll down the list. As we are interested in Indian gaming, select "Casinos" and "Native Americans."

Results: Note that this limited the results considerably.

There are still a lot of hits for this search because the limit feature automatically assumes you want to combine the terms with the Boolean operator "OR."

To limit the search even further, go back to advance search and do a Subject search for "Native Americans" AND "casinos."

The results:

3. Searching Other Fields

In the Advanced Search screen you can select various fields to search at one time. Keyword searches search the entire record, and these searches can sometimes yield too many results. Abstracts and titles often contain good keywords, and the results are often more focused and manageable. These kinds of searches can be especially useful in Native American research when subject headings do not keep up with changes in tribal names or recent terminology.

Let's look for information about gas and oil drilling on the Navajo Reservation. We will search Periodical Abstracts, WorldCat, and Wilson SelectPlus. Since we are searching more than one database, we will use keyword searches. Note that you can enter multiple terms, using the OR operator, in a single field. You do not have to do separate searches each time. This search will look for articles that have either the term "Navajo" or "Dineh" AND either the terms "oil" or "gas."

The results:

To narrow this search, go back to Advanced Search (you can use the Back button on your browser) and change the search fields to "Title."

The results:

These special features can be especially useful for conducting Native American research. Tribal names are often not in the subject headings, so keyword searches in the title or abstract field can help locate information about a particular group. The subject heading limits can help you identify subject headings that might be new to you. Searching multiple databases can help you cover a lot of material quickly.