How To Search
Professional Development Collection
Professional Development Collection (Ebscohost) is a computerized database that contains journal, magazine, and newspaper articles published from 1984 – present on topics useful for education professionals. You can print, save, or email the full-texts of many articles at your computer!
Searching
> Connect keywords with AND, OR, NOT.
Students and classroom management finds articles that contain both students
and classroom management.
Secondary or High School finds articles that contain either secondary or high
school.
Sports not football finds articles that contain sports but not football.
> Put phrases in quotation marks.
Example: "learning disabilities" finds articles that contain
this exact phrase.
> Truncation: Use an asterisk on the root of a word to find many
forms.
Example: Type read* to find read, readers, reading.
> To find more articles, check the boxes under Expand Your Search:
To find fewer but more relevant articles, check the boxes under Limit
Your Search.
> Refine Search can be seen in the citation or full text view of the
article. This option lets you search within the set of articles and limit by adding
another subject term or keyword, full-text, date range, or other options.
> Check "Peer-Reviewed" to limit your search to scholarly
and professional journals.
Super Searching
> Click "Guided Search" on the green bar near the top of the screen to limit your search to titles, authors, abstracts, cover stories, or images (pictures).
> Click the "Subject Searching" bubble in the blue bar
near the top of the screen to browse a list. Subject searching is recommended
if you are unsure of which keywords to use in a search.
Finding Full-texts of the Articles
Viewing Articles
Online: Articles with texts available on
the computer will have one of these two messages:
> Full Text—click here and then scroll down to view the article’s text.
> Full Page Image—click here to view the article in a PDF format.
Viewing Articles in Print: Some articles are not available online. Look
in Libraries’ Catalog to see if the libraries own the journal containing
the article:
>Click the Check for journal holdings message at the bottom of the article’s
citation.
>Professional Development Collection will enter the Libraries’ Catalog. The
journal will appear if the library holds copies of it. (If the Libraries do not
own the journal, you will see the red message "Your search resulted
in no hits!" in the Catalog)
> Scroll down to determine if the Library has the appropriate month
and year of the journal. (If multiple headings for the journal appear, click on
each heading to see if any has the appropriate month and year.)
> Write down the Location and Call Number for the journal or
magazine. Also, write down the citation—author, article title, journal title,
publication date, and page numbers--from Professional Development Collection.
> Retrieve the article from the appropriate library.
Folders
Professional Development Collection Database includes EBSCOhost's View Folder feature that lets you collect and manage a list of search results found during your current EBSCOhost session. EBSCOhost's View Folder feature lets you collect and manage a list of search results found during all searches in your current EBSCOhost session. You can use the folder to:
- Print, e-mail or save collected results from the folder. When you want to print, e-mail or save several results, you should always save them to the folder, then print, e-mail or save from the folder. (You can still print, e-mail, or save individual results from the open article or citation.)
- You can remove specific results, or clear the entire folder and collect new results from a different search during your session. If you end your session, or it times out due to inactivity, the folder is automatically cleared.
Printing, Saving, Emailing
Printing is free if you are using Professional Development Collection
from off-campus. Printing costs 5 cents a page inside the Library, and you must
use an Action Card to print. You can load Bama Cash on an Action Card at the
Value Transfer Station in the Copy Room.
Printing or saving full-texts:
> Click the "Print" button at the top of the article’s text (or "Save"
button).
> Fill in the bubble for "citation with formatted full text"
> Click the "Print" button again in the center of the page (or "Save"
button).
> Click "OK" (If you are printing inside the Library, type in your
name and pay for your print job at the printer station).
***To return to the list of articles: Exit the screen. Click the "Back"
button in the center of the page. Click "Results List" to return to
the list of articles.
Printing or saving full-page images: view the document and then click
the printer icon at the top left of the article (or the disk icon for saving).
Emailing full-texts or full-page images:
>Click the "Email" button above the article’s citation.
>Fill in the bubble for "Citation with formatted full text" (Very
Important: if your are emailing a full-page image, fill in the bubble
for "Citation with page image" or you will not receive the article on
your email account).
>Type in your email address and click "Email".
>Check your email account to make sure the articles were sent.
Help
>Ask
a librarian at the Information Desk in one of the campus libraries.
>Call the Libraries at (205) 348-6047
>Connect with a librarian online at ….
***These instructions were current as of September 2002. However, Professional
Development Collection can change at any time.