Module 3:
SD Library Network
How to Access SDLN
How to Search SDLN
Examples and Practice

Contents:
Introduction
Module 1: How to Solve an Information Problem
Module 2: Search Techniques
Module 4: Proquest
Module 5: Infotrac
Module 6: Lexis-Nexis
Module 7: OCLC Firstsearch
Module 8: 
Module 9: 
Module 10: 
Module 11: Internet Searching
Module 12: Evaluating Internet sources
Module 13: Scholarly vs. Popular
Module 14: Citing sources
Module 15: How to Get Material Not Available Online

Module 3: How to Search SDLN

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1. You should then be at the screen which says, "Please select Library and Resource from the options below." Follow these steps:

a. Select a library. Use the scroll bar menu of libraries at the top of the screen to select a single library, a group of libraries, or "all SDLN libraries."

b. Select a resource. Click on the radio button beside the resource you wish to search.

c. Click on the "Go" button to get to the search screen of the resource selected.

2. Enter a search on the search screen of the resource selected.

a. In the "by" line, select the type of search:

1) Use a keyword search when you are looking for material about a subject. In a keyword search, the system will look for the words you select in titles, notes, contents, and subject headings. Search techniques (no phrase searching is available) include:

a) Boolean operators:
and
or
not

b) Truncation (wildcard): #

2) Other types of searches are available......

a) Author (last-name, first-name) is used to search for material by a specific author

b) Title, keyword is used to search for material by using keywords from a title

c) Title, exact (omit initial article) is not recommended because is is difficult to know the exact title as it has been entered in the system. (Use a "title,keyword" search if "title, exact" search fails.)

d) Subject Heading, keyword is used to search all of the different subject headings that have been assigned to items.
(Try a "keyword" search if this search does not produce the results you want. Or you can find out possible subject headings if you: switch to "browse the index" by "subject heading" in the Advanced Search mode; or look at a print copy of Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Reference section of the Library; or see a librarian for help.)

e) Subject Heading, exact is not recommended unless you know the LC subject heading and understand how to use it (To find subject headings, switch to "browse the index" by "subject heading" in the Advanced Search mode; or look at a print copy of Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Reference section of the Library; or see a librarian for help.)

f) Combination (author's last name, first word of title) is used when you are looking for a specific item and know both theauthor's last name and, also, the first word of the title (ignoring "a," "an," and "the").

b. In the "for what" box, type the word or words to be searched

c. In the "where" box , select the library to be searched

d. Click on the "Go" button to enter the search.

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