If you’ve ever used a library database to do research, chances are it was an EBSCO database.  From general-knowledge resources like Academic Search Premier to discipline-specific parts like MedLine, PsycInfo, Business Source Premier, Communication and Mass Media, and ERIC, it covers every discipline taught at IU East – and includes over a third of our full text articles.  More students use it than any other database.

But at the end of the month, our most popular databases will be getting a facelift.  EBSCO is redesigning their interface based on user feedback, to make it cleaner and easier to use.  For example, have you ever run a really complicated search?  Something like:

TI nursing AND information AND (system* OR technology) AND TI practice NOT wireless

Well, now you don’t have to type out something like that.  Field codes like ‘TI’ and ‘AU’?  Instead, just click the ‘select a field’ button to specify that that word must be in the title or author.  Use the dropdowns for AND, OR and NOT rather than typing them.  You can use the database in a more intuitive way – not relying on as much complicated syntax you’ve had to use before.

But don’t worry – everything else is still in the same place.  You can choose any or all EBSCO databases to use at once at the top of the screen.  You can limit by date, by full text, or by peer-review on the left.  You access the articles by clicking on their titles, and the ‘find it’ button is still there to help you get articles we don’t have through interlibrary loan.  Everything you’ve learned about how to navigate still applies.  No features are gone, and they’re still in the same places.  Heck, if you like typing out a search like the one above, that’ll still work too.  Just now, you don’t have to.

Check out the changes next week.  And if you have any questions, let me help at iueref@iue.edu.