Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

MEL’s Database of the Week for 1/28/11

January 28th, 2011

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.  Today’s focus is on a database tool rather than the content.

This Week’s Featured Database: Biological & Agricultural Index Plus, 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: Biological & Agricultural Index Plus covers the core literature of biology and agriculture.

Start with this hint: Wilson’s interface has a toolbar under the WilsonWeb logo, handily displayed on every page as you navigate through the database. Click on the last selection, My WilsonWeb, and when the login page appears, register as a new user with your email and a password.  Click on Search and research your topic.  Any item in your results list can now be stored in your WilsonWeb space by checking the box by the article and then clicking Save To My WilsonWeb.  So if you conduct your research on a computer on campus but want to read the articles later on your PC or laptop, you don’t have to save the articles to a flash drive.   To see how easily this works, save a few articles from a search (by clicking Save To My WilsonWeb), then click My WilsonWeb in the toolbar.  Click on Saved Articles to see the list of articles you saved and to also display the tool for creating folders for your results, so you can store and sort articles for as many projects as you need.

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

Why you should know this database: Biological & Agricultural Index Plus content reaches back to 1983 and covers subjects ranging from agricultural chemicals, to biotechnology, to food science, to environmental science, and more.

How this database can be integrated into the curriculum: Although clearly intended to support programs in Agriculture, Biological & Agricultural Index Plus would also be a valuable resource for projects that include an environmental aspect or a biological safety issue.

Cost: Included as part of the Wilson OmniFile 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.