Instructor:Shayna Keces

1
Accessing Canadian Newsdisk, Canadian Business
and Current Affairs, and Canadian Periodical
Index from the Ottawa Public Library web page

2
Agenda

• What is a journal index?
• Basic general search techniques
• Introduction to Canadian Newsdisk
• Introduction to Canadian Business and Current
  Affairs (CBCA)
• Logging on to these databases
• Searching Canadian Newsdisk and CBCA
• Logging on to Canadian Periodical Index
• Searching Canadian Periodical Index
• Other available databases

3
What is a Journal Index?

• Index to newspapers and magazines (use keywords
  to find specific article)
• Can be automated or manual
• Indexing can be selective or complete or
  combination (eg. Canadian Periodical Index
  indexes the Globe and Mail but only certain
  sections)
• Full-text indexing means search mechanism
  searches entire text of article
• Full-text database means that database will
  provide citation as well as text of article (may
  or may not include pictures)

4
Basic general search techniques

• Think of keywords which describe the information
  you are looking for and which should be found in
  the article.
• Try to be as specific as possible
• Think of alternative words
• Use the word and to narrow a search and or to
  enlarge it
• Decide if it is important to have Canadian
  content
• Think about what forms of information would suit
  your needs (newspapers, magazines, TV news shows)

5
What is Canadian Newsdisk?

• Automated full-text index and database for 14
  Canadian newspapers and transcripts of many CTV
  and CBC television news programs
• Coverage starts in 1994 to present with a 1-3
  month time lag
• Indexes Ottawa Citizen

6
What is Canadian Business and Current Affairs
(CBCA)

• Indexes over 750 periodicals, mostly Canadian and
  includes full-text of more than 300 sources.
• Is updated twice a month
• Includes an index to Globe and Mail but not full
  text

7
Logging on to Canadian Newsdisk and CBCA

• Go to librarys webpage (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)
  
• Click on English
• Click on Electronic Info
• Click on Canadian Newsdisk or CBCA
• Type in the new 14 digit library barcode in the
  box provided and press Submit

8
Searching on Canadian Newsdisk

• Choose which sources you would like to search.
  Default is all but you have buttons on top which
  allow you to select all current sources (i.e.
  post 1998) or all backfiles (i.e. 1994-1998).
  To select just one source click on the button for
  deselect all and page down until you find the
  source you do want and click on the appropriate
  box.
• After choosing your sources, page up to top or
  down to bottom and click on button labelled Go
  to Search Screen

9
Searching Canadian Newsdisk cont.

• If your keywords are very distinctive you can
  input them into the Search Words Anywhere box
  keeping in mind that the words will be looked for
  anywhere in the article
• Often when searching newspapers, using the
  Search Lead Paragraph box is a better idea
  since the actual subject of an article should
  appear in the lead paragraph
• You must use the Boolean terms and, or, and
  and not to separate words otherwise the words
  will be searched as a phrase

10
Searching Canadian Newsdisk cont.

• For fields that have an Index button, it is
  usually wise to click on Index as it will give
  you a list of all the items in that category so
  you will be sure you have the right form
• Newspaper/Transcript will give you a list of all
  the news progams which are covered by this
  heading
• Byline/Host gives you an index of all the
  bylines which exist in the sources you have chosen

11
Searching Canadian Newsdisk cont.

• At the bottom of the page you can limit by date
• You can also limit the number of hits you get
  (the default is 200). If your search exceeds the
  number of hits, you should redo the search
  because you have just found the first 200 not the
  best 200.
• You can also choose how the results should be
  sorted (publication date is usually a good choice)

12
View your documents

• Since everything in Canadian Newsdisk is full
  text, to view a document, just click on the title
  and you will get the full text minus any pictures
• When you are finished, click on the button
  labelled Back to Results to see the rest of
  your list
• You may then click on the buttons print or email
  to print or email the full text
• If the results arent what you anticipated, you
  can also click on Refine Search to change your
  keywords

13
Practice

• 1. Find a story in the Ottawa Citizen written by
  Gay Cook in the past year about a Lebanese
  takeout called Really.
• 2. Find a book review for the book No great
  mischief by Alistair Macleod.
• 3. Find the name of the business which had its
  window broken during protests in Ottawa during
  G20 summit in November.

14
Hints for Practice

• 1. Restrict to Ottawa Citizen and use byline
  field.
• 2. Can use type of article field or use lead
  paragraph.
• 3. Restrict to Ottawa Citizen. Make sure you
  do not include too much information. Use date
  limit.

15
Searching Canadian Business and Current Affairs
(CBCA)

• Has more items by which can restrict search.
  However most heavily used would be Publications
  Directory where you would use Index feature.
• The subject index can also be useful but is not
  used for the Full-text business titles.
• Can restrict by date range using a menu covering
  things like last 3 months or last year, or can
  specify particular dates

16
Searching CBCA cont.

• Like Canadian Newsdisk can specify a limit for
  no. of results which you should try to keep high
  enough to get all your hits.
• Divides database up by Business vs. Reference
  and also by date. Click on boxes beside those
  you dont want to turn selection off.
• Since CBCA has full-text as well as regular
  indexing, you can choose to limit your search to
  full text articles keeping in mind you will
  eliminate newspaper citations available in
  Canadian Newsdisk.

17
Viewing Your Documents

• Like Canadian Newsdisk if you dont like the
  results you can use Refine Search to change your
  keywords
• When you look at your list of results only those
  articles with green checkmarks under the box
  labelled FT have the full text of the article.
  To see the full text click on the title.
• When looking at the article you will see the
  citation and as you scroll down, you will see the
  text of the article.

18
Viewing Your Documents cont.

• When looking at a document you will have the
  same choices to return to results, refine search,
  print or email that you had in Canadian Newsdisk.
• Although you can mark items and then just email
  the marked items, you will only get the
  references and not the full text.

19
Practice

• Find some articles on the effect of divorce on
  children.
• Find some book reviews for Alistair Macleods No
  Great Mischief
• Find some articles about judging controversies in
  ice dancing

20
Hints for Practice

• Use subject index to look at subject heading
  dealing with children
• Use article/event type to specify book review or
  review
• Use subject index to look at subjects for skating
  and figure skating and use wildcard for dancing
  and judging

21
What is Canadian Periodical Index

• Mainly Canadian database which indexes about 400
  English and French journal about 160 of them are
  full-text.
• Includes Globe and Mail full text minus Sports
  and Business sections
• Has a few American journals

22
Logging into Canadian Periodical Index

• Go to librarys webpage (www.library.ottawa.on.ca)
  
• Click on English
• Click on Electronic Info
• Click on Canadian Periodical Index
• Type in the new 14 digit library barcode in the
  box provided and press Submit

23
Searching in Canadian Periodical Index

• Default is keyword search. Entering two words
  together will loosely be treated as a phrase
  where the words only have to be within two words
  of each other
• You can also use and, or and and not.
• You can use asterisks as a wildcard, eg.
  computer for computer, computers or computerized

24
Searching in Canadian Periodical Index cont.

• You can also use subject guide if you think you
  know the subject
• Advanced search will help you build a Boolean
  search
• You can also narrow your search by limiting it
  to full text articles, by limiting it to a
  specific year or by specifying a certain
  periodical (can select up to 10 at a time)
• Default is to search for terms in title, citation
  or abstract but can choose to search terms in the
  text of the article as well.

25
Viewing Results in Canadian Periodical Index

• When looking at list of citations,
• means go to next page and
• means go to last page
• A red maple leaf indicates that the article is
  full text otherwise it is a reference only and
  you would have to see if we had the periodical by
  checking our catalogue or some of our other
  databases.
• To view full text click on the blue underlined
  words View text and retrieval choices

26
Viewing Results in Canadian Periodical Index cont.

• Once you view an article or citation (click on
  words View extended citation and retrieval
  choices after the article or citation you will
  see a list of general subject headings you may
  want to explore.
• Below the subjects you have an opportunity to
  email the citation or article to someone or to
  reformat it for easier printing.

27
Practice

• 1. Find all the articles on skating in Macleans
  magazine and Sports Illustrated since 2000
• 2. Find a book review of Alistair Macleods No
  great mischief
• 3. Find an article in the Globe and Mail on
  health reform in Alberta written in 2002.

28
Practice hints

• 1. Use Browse to find Macleans and all issues of
  Sports Illustrated for the limit by journal.
  Limit by date. Use subject search for skating. To
  increase amount do keyword search using skat to
  retrieve skating and skaters.
• 2. Use subject search for phrase No great
  mischief.
• 3. Put Globe and Mail in box limiting to
  specific journal and use keywords in entire
  article content for Alberta and health reform.
  Limit by date.

29
Evaluating your results

• If the number of articles you get is too high you
  can limit or narrow them by
• Adding new keywords
• Limiting keywords to title, citation or abstract
• Finding appropriate subject and using advanced
  search to specify keyword under specific subject
• Limit by date
• Limit to articles with text

30
Evaluating your results cont.

• If you do not get enough hits, expand your list
  by
• By adding keywords using the operator OR
• By searching the text of the document instead of
  the default of title, citation, abstract

31
Other databases available from home

• Literature Resource Center (critical essays on
  writers and their works)
• Alt-Health Watch (database focused on
  complementary, alternative and integrated
  approaches to health care and wellness)
• Biography Resource Center (Biographical
  information on more than one million people from
  throughout history, around the world, and across
  all disciplines and subject areas)

32
Other databases available from home, cont.

• CanCorp Financials (Financial data on more than
  12,000 Canadian Companies)
• MasterFILE Premier is a large full text index to
  more than 1800 magazines as well as an index to
  another 2200 periodicals
• Canadian MAS FullTEXT Elite provides full text
  index to nearly 190 periodicals as well as an
  index to another 460 magazines

33
Other databases available from home, cont.

• Health Source Consumer Edition provides full
  text indexing of nearly 160 health journals as
  well as indexes another 180.
• Novelist is a readers advisory tool to help you
  find novels on specific subjects or other works
  by specific author.
• Electric Library Canada is a full text database
  of more than 540 periodicals and 200 newspapers
  from around the world. Includes the Ottawa Sun
  current to the previous day.

34
Other databases available from home, cont.

• Grolier New Book of Knowledge (childrens
  encyclopedia)
• Grolier Lands and Peoples (encyclopedia on
  countries)
• Grolier New Book of Popular Science (science
  encyclopedia)