Searching the ERL Databases on the Web

There are more than 30 databases on the following disciplines on the ERL (Electronic Reference Library) server:
Art & Humanities, Biology, Economics, Education, Food Science, Geography, Literature, Mathematics, Pharmacy, Political Science, Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, Sport Sciences and Statistics.

Access ERL Databases on the Web
Choose ERL at "Major Databases" of the Library homepage (http://www.lib.cuhk.edu.hk).
The databases must be accessed via the CUHK Campus Network.  The maintenance hours of the services are 9:00am-10:30am on every Monday.

Select and Open Databases
A group of ERL databases can be searched simultaneously.
Click on the check box next to each database you want to search.
Click Open Selected Databases button at the top of screen.

Search the databases
Type search terms in the Find: input box, and then click the Start Search button.

Search Tips:

1. Combine search terms with AND, OR, NOT, WITH, NEAR

and Finds records that contain both of two terms.
or Finds records that contain either or both of two terms.
not Finds records that contain one term but not another.
with Finds records that contain both of two terms in the same field.
near Finds records that contain both of two terms in the same sentence (in any order).
adj Find records that contain search terms next to each other in a specified order.

Notes:
Use parentheses to do the searches enclosed with parentheses first, e.g. food culture and (china or hong kong or taiwan)
Add a number to near to specify exactly how close the terms must be. For example, food near2 culture retrieves records with food within two words of culture (in any order).
Use the not operator carefully as it can eliminate useful records. For example, dog not puppy misses records that contain both dog and puppy.

2. Truncation & Wildcard
The TRUNCATION symbol (*) substitutes for a string of zero or more characters. Use * to search all variants of the root word, e.g. comput*
The WILDCARD symbol (?)substitutes for one character or none. Use ? to search for alternate characters within a word, e.g. colo?r

3. Limit the Search by other factors such as Publication Years or Languages
Limit the search results to records with common characteristics, such as language or publication year.
Click the Search Other Limits button and then select the limit fields from the list.

4. Limit the search in Specific Database Fields
Click the Search Builder button to focus your search in specific database fields such as author, source journal.

5. Getting Suggested Search Terms
Click Suggest on the right toolbar to use the Suggest feature that provides suggested search terms related to your subject term. Because they are taken directly from database descriptor terms, suggested terms may yield more precise search results.

6. Using the Database Indexes
Each database has an Index of searchable terms. In addition to the General (Free Text) Index, some databases have separate indexes for certain fields such as Title or Author. Use the Index to look up terms for searching, including hyphenated phrases and variations of authors' names.
Click Index on the right toolbar to get to the Index page.

7. Using the Database Thesaurus
Many databases include a Thesaurus, which is a standardized list of terms that describe the records within a database. The Thesaurus lets you: look up synonyms, related terms, and preferred terms; get term information, such as definitions, scope notes, and broader/narrower terms; search for terms along with selected subheadings.
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The Thesaurus is available only if you are searching a single database, database family, or multiple databases that share the same thesaurus.

Click Thesaurus on the right toolbar to get to the Thesaurus page.

Working with the Search Results

1. Click Display at the search history of the lower frame to display retrieved records.
2. Change Display
Click Change Display on the top of the screen to change the display options of the records. The default is citation, abstract and full-text of articles (if full-text exists).
3. Fulltext
Click the fulltext URL under each record to read the full-text of the articles. Not all records have the full-text links.
4. Check for Library Holdings
Click the Check CUHK Holdings button under each record to check the library's online catalog for current library holdings information.
5. Mark Records
Check the box next to the record number to mark the relevant records for later printing or downloading.
6. Print Records
Click the Print button and then Print records button. Pull down the File menu of your web browser and select the Print command. ¡@
7. Save Records
Click Save and then click Save Records.
8. E-mail Records
Click the E-Mail button. Enter an email address in the Mail Records To text entry box and then click the Mail Records button.
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Displaying Database Guides
Each database has a unique online guide that includes a list of fields with descriptions and sample searches. It also includes explanations of any special features of the database.
Select a database from the Databases in use dropdown list at the top of the screen to display the database guides.
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This user guide provides only general guidelines for searching the ERL databases. Please enquire at the Reference Counter (ext. 7305) for any further information.