Database Searching Tips

This is a handout that is used as a reference for those who are learning to more effectively search databases for assignments and evidence-based practice projects. Please contact the author for a version that can be reused and rebranded

Advanced Database Searching for Health and Social Work

Library guide to searching healthcare databases; applying limits, thesaurus searching, saving searches

Basic Database Searching for Health and Social Work

Library guide to searching healthcare databases; choosing keywords, using Boolean, entering search terms into a database

Database Searching on INSPIRE

Have you ever searched a database, received a set of answers that were OK but felt that more information was available if only you had the key? Many times a word or a phrase will produce interesting information but not exactly the information that is needed. Efficiently searching databases requires the separation of the search language and the database content. The purpose of this article is to discuss some searching skills to help separate the two and increase your precision. This paper will review basic searching, advanced searching, and some special features

Brookes Library online: a guide for Education students

A guide to Library resources available online, including login procedure, e-books, e-journals and database searching, plus troubleshooting tips. Targeted at Education students so using education-related examples, but could be used by other groups with minor adaptations

ALIA LIS research environmental scan report

Executive summary: An environmental scan of Australian Library and Information Studies (LIS) research was undertaken focusing on the period 2005–2013. This was in response to a brief from ALIA that sought such an analysis to inform its decisions in relation to content of a future research agenda, support, advocacy, and future funding. The investigation was expected to include research priorities of other library and information organisations, topics of research undertaken in Australia, types of research, persons/organisations undertaking research, and how research activities are funded, communicated and applied. The report took into account: research priorities of LIS professional associations both within and outside Australia production of higher degree theses over the period publication by practitioners and academics in both Australian and international publications and grant or other support for research or investigatory projects. METHODOLOGY AND LIMITATIONS: Methodologies employed included: Website analysis for research priorities of LIS organisations Database searching using Trove for higher degree theses Database searching using multiple databases for publications In the case of research in progress and resourcing via grants, methods employed were database searching, consultation and by survey methods The limitations in these approaches are explained in each related Section or Appendix. However, the major limitations were: Poor response to the online survey despite its wide dissemination through ALIA and other associations Inconsistent responses to individual surveys directed specifically at academic departments Coverage of publications by databases, particularly of material outside periodicals Difficulties in categorising document

Database Searching On a Budget

There are many low-cost alternatives for libraries that do not have the resources for database searching. One alternative is for the library to use the so-called after hours services that offer lower hourly rates

RasBhari: optimizing spaced seeds for database searching, read mapping and alignment-free sequence comparison

Many algorithms for sequence analysis rely on word matching or word statistics. Often, these approaches can be improved if binary patterns representing match and don't-care positions are used as a filter, such that only those positions of words are considered that correspond to the match positions of the patterns. The performance of these approaches, however, depends on the underlying patterns. Herein, we show that the overlap complexity of a pattern set that was introduced by Ilie and Ilie is closely related to the variance of the number of matches between two evolutionarily related sequences with respect to this pattern set. We propose a modified hill-climbing algorithm to optimize pattern sets for database searching, read mapping and alignment-free sequence comparison of nucleic-acid sequences; our implementation of this algorithm is called rasbhari. Depending on the application at hand, rasbhari can either minimize the overlap complexity of pattern sets, maximize their sensitivity in database searching or minimize the variance of the number of pattern-based matches in alignment-free sequence comparison. We show that, for database searching, rasbhari generates pattern sets with slightly higher sensitivity than existing approaches. In our Spaced Words approach to alignment-free sequence comparison, pattern sets calculated with rasbhari led to more accurate estimates of phylogenetic distances than the randomly generated pattern sets that we previously used. Finally, we used rasbhari to generate patterns for short read classification with CLARK-S. Here too, the sensitivity of the results could be improved, compared to the default patterns of the program. We integrated rasbhari into Spaced Words; the source code of rasbhari is freely available at http://rasbhari.gobics.de

In search for natural wormholes

We have investigated 631 time profiles of gamma ray bursts from the BATSE database searching for observable signatures produced by microlensing events related to natural wormholes. The results of this first search of topologically nontrivial objects in the Universe can be used to constrain their number and mass.Comment: Mod. Phys. Lett. A. (in press) Latex (revtex style) with no figure