There are two types of database that you are able to search within Infotrac. 'OneFile' allows you to search for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics through a wide range of journals, whereas the 'Full text newspaper database' searches topics found in several newspapers. There are many ways of searching the databases using the different types of search set out by Infotrac.
Types of Search
Relevance Search
This searches for articles that are matched and ranked according to the relevancy to the search terms entered. This means that the results displayed will not be in Chronological order, but by order of the best match.
Subject Search
The Subject Search facility is only available in the Infotrac One File database. This searches the term entered and brings up a list of subjects related to that term. For example, if you used the search term 'Mars', the subjects retrieved would include Mars the planet, Mars bars, Mars Ltd etc. Therefore, you can view the articles for your preferred subject.
Advanced Search
Advanced search allows you to enter various different types of search terms i.e. 'keyword', 'title', 'subject' etc. You can also choose to use the operators 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT' to link the combined search terms. For example you could search for the keywords 'Mars' AND 'chocolate' NOT 'planet'.
Advanced searching also allows you to select the journals or newspapers you wish to search, by clicking on 'Browse'. This will display a list of all Infotrac journals (or Newspapers if you are in 'Full Text Newspaper database'), so you can select them by checking the boxes and clicking on 'Submit selections'. You can then continue your search and the results shown will be for the selected journals/newspapers only. You can search for a quote or part of a sentence by adding "quotation marks" to your search.
Tips and Tricks
In the Advanced search in OneFile database, you can search for journals with specific words in the title, using operators and wildcards. You need to type in an = sign, before the term you wish to find within the journal title, and you can use an asterisk* to search for variations of that word. For example, = Comput* would search for journal titles containing the words Computer, Computing, Computation, etc.
Tools
InfoMarks
This tool allows you to share search results and articles with other people in Microsoft Word, email and in Web pages. Please see the InfoMarks tip sheet.
Dictionary
There is a dictionary tool available in Infotrac, which allows you to highlight any word and click on 'Dictionary' to find out its meaning.
