Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 10/29/10

November 1st, 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: Applied Science & Technology, from H.W. Wilson.

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: Applied Science & Technology covers the range of topics in these subject areas from Acoustics to Waste Management.

Start with this hint: Applied Science & Technology includes the Wilson interface feature called Smart Search.  This is offered as the default in the dropdown list of options for type of search, which also includes the usual subject, title, author. Try a term such as solar cells as a Smart Search and compare with the same term as a Keyword.  The results will probably be satisfying with either option since the resulting list includes more choices and filters.

Other common tools available in this database: save selected hits online for later retrieval; some fulltext; FIND IT at Purdue Libraries; citation help; suggestions for related topics; filters for type of source (peer reviewed, non-peer reviewed) and type of document (article, book review, etc.); email selected hits to yourself; alerts and RSS feed; limit by date; option to sort by date or relevance. For use of these tools in this database, contact Mary Dugan.

Why you should know this database: Applied Science & Technology coverage reaches back to 1983 and includes sources not regularly found in business databases.  Topics that could interest MEL constituents include airport security, soybean production, quality in manufacturing, and more.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: The basic search interface for Applied Science & Technology is so simple to use that even Google-minded students who need to investigate a technical aspect of a project will be able to find peer-reviewed and industry-focused articles.

Cost: Included as part of the Wilson Omni File package, paid by the Libraries annually.

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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.