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New Concepts from New Technology The presence of full-text World Wide Web-based databases is rapidly increasing in academic libraries. However, these databases have very diverse interfaces and search engines. Patrons frequently find themselves at a loss as they search massive databases without the help of an intermediary. The authors of this article searched for commonalities among five Web-based full-text databases: EBSCOhost Academic Elite, FirstSearch EBSCO Master File, Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, JSTOR, and Project Muse. The purpose of the study was to identify universal concepts that, when taught to end-users, will help them to search any of the above databases competently. The authors identified four concepts that can be taught to all users of Web-based full-text databases: scope, Boolean logic, hypertext, and critical evaluation. Full-text databases are increasing their presence on the Web at a furious rate. Vendors are adding full-text articles to what were once strictly citation indexes. Databases that were once accessible through a modem connection, such as Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis, now have Web incarnations. New products, such as JSTOR and Project Muse, offer the full content of an entire issue of previously published journals. The Web makes these databases more accessible to end-users. In the library, it is no longer necessary for a patron to make an appointment with a librarian in order to search massive online databases. Can patrons handle this? What do they do when confronted with this abundance of riches? It is rare when patrons are able to retrieve information that really meets their needs without having some degree of information literacy. Even if the patron has a basic knowledge of how information is organized and accessed, Web-based full-text databases add another layer of complexity to information retrieval. These databases do not form a homogenous mass. They all look different, have different scopes, and are searched differently. Further, it seems that no sooner does a user get a feel for the intricacies of one of these databases than it changes its interface, so that one is never quite at home with it and must spend precious time learning again how to search effectively. If librarians and information professionals have this kind of trouble, how are end-users going to fare? We know that a basic knowledge of information literacy concepts helps patrons to retrieve relevant information from the library, so the authors wondered if they could find some new concepts that would apply to all Web-based full-text databases. For instance, how can a user find the scope of the database? What kind of language do these databases use to indicate certain necessary functions? How do you know where to enter your search terms? Must you know Boolean logic? What about natural language searching? How does the availability of hypertext affect the search or the retrieval of information? In this study, the authors examined five Web-based full-text databases--Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, EBSCO through FirstSearch, EBSCOhost Academic Elite, Project Muse, and JSTOR--to determine what, if any, terms or concepts are universal to all of them.(1) Once these concepts are identified, it will be possible to teach them to patrons, with the hope that they will then be able to search successfully for information on any Web-based full-text database. Literature Search The idea of finding teachable concepts that will transfer from one database to another, thus avoiding the necessity of instructing patrons in the use of each individual database, has been previously explored in library literature. King and Baker, in a book chapter titled Human Aspects of Library Technology: Implications for Academic Library User Education, asserted that Users who receive concept based instruction seem to be better able to perform more complex tasks within the technology.(2) Taylor and Penhale, in an article describing Earlham College's integration of electronic database searching classes into their bibliographic instruction curriculum, wrote that A bibliographic instruction program that focuses on concepts of searching rather than on the mechanical details of using specific sources allows students to apply what they have learned to various types of searching. …
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Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 3 citations exist upstream.
Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.