The Electronic World is made up of hardware, software, and data. Here the focus is on data. These three categories are not watertight. These are the basic questions to ask:
Beyond these questions lie the more mechanical matters of how search results can be downloaded and/or printed, which are not dealt with here. Consult the general library guide for the basics.
What Resources Exist?
Ultimately a resource is a file or collection of files. Determine the name of the resource, its address and who (individual and/or corporate entity) is responsible for it. A good tool for this purpose is
Gale Directory of Databases. Vol. 1, Online. Vol. 2, CD-ROM, Diskette, etc.A general list of UBC Library online resources can be found in the Online Information Resources A-Z List .
Z 699.22 G253 Koerner Quick ReferenceFind out what the scope is -- that is, is the content likely to include matter of interest? Scope includes:
Size of the resource how many records, lines, megabytes, etc. Structure of the file(s) quantity, interrelationships Subject coverage central and fringe disciplines Chronological coverage a priori limits on content Genres included/excluded theses, book chapters, government documents, etc. Frequency of updating annual, biannual, quarterly, monthly, etc. or closed
Is the Resource Available?
Access to electronic resources may involve levels and restrictions. These include:
- Freely available to all
- The Forest of Rhetoric
- Available to those who register
- Thomas Register of American Manufacturers
- Restricted to a particular institution (typically by ip address)
- English Verse Drama
and perhaps requiring appropriate client software
- Prior subscription by group or individual (id/password access)
- Poole's Plus : the digital index of the nineteenth century
- Available for individual purchase (perhaps under site license)
- Corel WordPerfect Office 2000
A stand-alone personal computer only has access to what has been installed on that particular computer. What follows presupposes connection (modem, etc.) to a network that allows communication with resources beyond those on the computer itself.
The library system provides interfaces to dozens of named entities (files, collections of files, gateways to other systems). Some are freely available and others are restricted in various ways.
Whether through the library or directly on the internet, successful communication requires some understanding of
Resources provided through library interfaces may include connection scripts that eliminate the user's need for this detail. Other resources will inspect your electronic id and see that your account reveals a connection with "UBC".
- the software on your machine
- the procedures for making desired connections
- id/password required
- the software of the particular application that you choose
What Does the File Contain?
A file contains data, and unless a user is working from the "inside", differences in data -- image (binary) and text (ascii), for example -- are likely to be transparent.
A basic distinction is between text and records. In print terms, a newspaper story is text and a bibliographic citation is a record. Of course, it is possible to view the newspaper story as a record, and the bibliographic citation is textual. The key to the difference is how much of the item is unstructured text. The body of a newspaper story cannot easily be differentiated into separate elements, but a bibliographic citation is normally seen as a collection of elements such as author, title, place, publisher, and date. The practical implications of this difference relate to indexing and searching, discussed further below.
A Brief Digression on TextAs electronic storage costs decrease and as speeds of processing and data transmission increase, it becomes feasible to provide the text itself instead of just a citation, which is a pointer to the text. Much time and energy is expended by researchers in tracking down what they have collected citations to and want to read. The economics and technology of the print medium have required the citation to be a surrogate for the text itself.
The library has begun to move into the world of full electronic text. In the file CBCA : Canadian Business and Current Affairs some citations now lead to a complete article online. Lexis-Nexis provides access to an overwhelming amount of full-text material from legal and news sources. The Library's Electronic Text Collection offers networked access to a number of large full-text resources.
How Is a Record Structured?
Familiar electronic files such as the UBC Library catalogue and the MLA index consist of records managed by database software. Differences experienced between various resources may relate more to software than to the records themselves. The extent to which the full record may be seen is controlled by the display formats provided for in the software. An understanding of the structure and content of the records in a file may lead to much greater precision in what can be found.
The different elements that make up a record are called fields. For example, the fields most likely to prove useful in an MLA record are:
TI Title AU Author SO Source [publication information] LA Language PT Publication type PY Publication year DE Descriptor / subject index term A search using these fields offers much greater control over the result. This might mean reading through twenty useful citations rather than a hundred citations of which ninety were garbage. Keyword searching of "free text" can be useful and powerful, particularly if the searcher understands what is being done. In general it should supplement more precise searching and not be used as a first approach.
What Indexes Are Provided?
There are two types of indexes: exact (random-length string) and keyword (space-delimited string). Index contents tend to be defined by the field or subfield in which the data is located. It can help to know which specific fields are covered by an index, and how the index(es) are structured.
The UBC Library catalogue as presented by DRA software offers six text indexes and seven numeric indexes. Of the text indexes, three provide exact access (author, title, subject) and all (au, ti, su, pu, fn, nt) provide keyword access. A considerable number of fields are mapped to these indexes, and assistance should be sought if difficulties are encountered.
MLA on SilverPlatter permits browsing in a single index which includes both exact and keyword terms. Attached to each index term is (invisible) field information which can be used for more precise searching.
An exact index contains things like titles, inverted names, or subject phrases. It is very useful to browse an exact index if the search software permits. This makes it possible to select from what is seen on the screen instead of blindly firing terms at something invisible.