Database Skills (ABI/INFORM)

Getting Started

Welcome to the Database Tutorial Series.

This tutorial will teach you about the research process using the ABI/INFORM Complete database.

This "Guide on the Side" tutorial allows you to continue to use the library websites while also following along with the tutorial.

Note: If you are off campus, you may be asked for your Pirate ID and passphrase to log in to the database.

The tutorial will take approximately 10 minutes. Click the right arrow at the bottom of this pane to proceed.

Navigation

Navigation

Before we begin, please take note of the following navigation buttons that you will see in the Guide on the Side panel:

Your Turn: This button represents an opportunity to use the database during the tutorial, so please follow the directions.

Ask Us: Click this to be connected with a librarian via IM when the Research Desk is open.

Let's get started!

Navigation

Sample Topic

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using the following sample topic:

What is the impact of outsourcing American customer service jobs to India?

Let's say the paper requirements say that you need at least 4 scholarly sources.

You can find scholarly sources in a database, but what is that?

Defining Databases

You can find articles by searching in a database. A database is a searchable collection of information. Examples of everyday databases include your iTunes library and IMDB, the Internet Movie Database. A library database contains scholarly journal articles, newspapers, magazine articles, trade journals, and sometimes book chapters.

The database we are searching in this tutorial is ABI/INFORM Complete. This is a subject-specific database, which means it is limited to one field of study: business.

Keywords

Recall that our sample topic is outsourcing customer service jobs to India and that one step we must complete is to develop keywords.

Your Turn! What keywords would you use to search in the ABI/INFORM Complete database? Click the link below to see the answer.

Answer

If you would like to learn more about using Boolean operators and keywords, please visit our Graduate 101 tutorial.

Keywords

Your Turn! In the ABI/INFORM Complete database, write in your search terms: outsourcing AND India AND customer service.

Results

You should have some results on your screen. But how do you make sure they are current, scholarly information? Notice that on the right side of the screen, you will see links for the following:

• Full Text
• Scholarly Journals
• Date

Your Turn! Click on the scholarly link. Notice the results list getting shorter. Next, change the date range to the last 5 years. Notice that the results list gets shorter again.  

Results

A Note about Full Text

The Full Text option allows you to see only the items with the whole article attached. If the whole article is not available as a PDF, many times, if you click the purple Find It! button, you will see that ECU Libraries do, in fact, have the full text in another database or journal. If we do not have an article, we can normally get it for you via Interlibrary Loan. This free service can be used to borrow an article or book from another library that does have it.

Email your Results

You should have a list of scholarly articles about outsourcing in India written in the last 5 years. To learn more about an article, click on the article title in the center of the page, or click on the word Preview at the end of the title. The resulting record you will see has a short summary called the abstract. Read this to decide if the article is right for your project.

Your Turn! Click the preview button next to the titles in the list to see their abstracts. Which would you consider using for your paper?

Email your Results

Next, notice the check boxes to the left of the articles. If you would like to save an article for use in your research, you can add it to a list. The list is temporary, so we will learn how to email them next. If you find yourself doing a lot of research in this database, you can set up a My Research folder to save articles.

Your Turn! Add 4 articles to the list by clicking on the check box. 

Email your Results

In order to access the articles in your list at a later time, you will need to email them to yourself.

Your Turn! Scroll to the top of the screen and notice that on the upper right there is the option to Email.

Once you have accessed the Email option, you can do the following:

• Enter your own email address
• Enter a subject and comments
• Change the citation format to the format required for your paper
• Click Send!

Email your Results

You should now have 4 items for your paper on outsourcing in India that have been sent to your inbox. These articles will be attached to the email if they were PDFs, or there will be a link back to the database. You will have the citation for your articles, as well, but make sure to check them over before copying and pasting them in to your bibliography.

Next Steps: If you wish to complete this tutorial again with your own topic, you may start over by clicking Back Home.

Certificate

Please enter your name and email address to retrieve a copy of your completed quiz.

You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. If you are doing this for a class, you may need to enter your instructor's email address also.