Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 10/8/10

October 8th, 2010

Welcome to Database of the Week — a feature from the Management & Economics Library (MEL). These database snapshots will give you basic information about our most relevant and beneficial online resources.

This Week’s Featured Database: AGRICOLA, from the National Agricultural Library.

Link: www.lib.purdue.edu/mel, in the pull down Quick Access to Business Databases alpha list right below the Libraries’ search box.

Description/focus: AGRICOLA is a record material on agriculture and related topics that are in the National Agricultural Library.

Start with this hint: There are few difference between the AGRICOLA advanced interface and the basic.  Both offer options by clicking Additional Limits which include language, target audience, type of publication, and years of publication.  It also offers a box to check for Full Text, but AGRICOLA has few full text articles.  For example, a keyword search for organic farming has 2040 hits, but the same search for full text results in only 10 titles.  This presents a good opportunity to try out the FIND IT at Purdue Libraries service.  If the title you want is available in another database, FIND IT at Purdue Libraries will do the search and show you where it is.  Perhaps the most useful feature of the AGRICOLA interface is that you can see your search history and combine searches.  For example, the search for organic farming can be combined with specific countries or crops.  AGRICOLA also supplies tools and filters to narrow search results.

Why you should know this database: AGRICOLA topics cover a wide range including agricultural regulations, training, animal science, nutrition, natural resources management, environmental pollution, food science, forestry, energy, and others.  AGRICOLA coverage goes back to 1970.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: The AGRICOLA list of results shows an option to Find Similar for each title.  The filters and other tools can simplify  the search process.

Cost:Paid annually by Purdue University Libraries.

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Database of the Week comes to you from the Management & Economics Library (MEL). Our intent is to give you a brief introduction to a database that you may not know.  If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact kranlib@purdue.edu.  Database of the Week is archived  at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/MGMT/.  For more Purdue Libraries news, follow us on Twitter (@PurdueLibraries).

If you would like us to promote your favorite database, send an email to mdugan@purdue.edu.