Most students love Google
because it is so easy to search a wide variety of resources in one simple
process. Google can locate some scholarly research, but most
scholarly sources are not freely available on the web. You quickly learn
that the best place to find this material is through the academic databases
to which the library subscribes: Academic Search Premier, SciFinder Scholar,
and around 200 other titles. Of course, many of these come from different
software vendors and have different ways to search and retrieve articles.
Wouldn’t it be nice if
you could use one easy tool and search in several relevant databases at one
time?
MultiSearch may be one
answer to these problems. MultiSearch is a new web-based product provided
by the library for our students and faculty. It is considered a “federated
search” program; it searches several different databases simultaneously and
provides you with a consolidated set of results.
When you begin your
search using MultiSearch, you will select a subject area (say, biology) and
then enter a keyword or phrase. MultiSearch will search in each of the
several preselected databases that have biology content, retrieve your
results, and present them to you in a consolidated format. This can take a
few seconds, since the software translates your keyword or phrase into a
format required by each of the databases included in your search.
Of course, when you know
you want to search just one database and are familiar with your selection,
MultiSearch is not the tool to use. Think of MultiSearch as a way to scan
several databases quickly for some articles and books of interest. It can
guide you toward a resource that you might not have considered useful in
relation to your subject. It is great for those times when you need just a
few good sources!
Now that you know what it
is, where do you find it?
MultiSearch will be
linked from the library’s home page, but we also intend to place
subject-based search boxes on each of the web pages listed under the
“Resources by Subject” link.
