To access the digital (online) resources from off-campus, a login is required. The login for students is set to the following:

• USERNAME = student ID number preceded by BVC, i.e. BVC123456
• PASSWORD = last four digits of your phone number

LibSearch is the LLC's central catalogue that searches across all library resources including print books, DVDs & audiovisual (AV) materials, eBooks, streaming videos, academic and professional/trade e-journals, newspapers, and magazines. 

Or access the LLC's databases collection through:

A library database is a collection of highly organized, electronic information, such as journals, newspapers, and videos. The library's catalogue and databases are structured so you can access all the items stored inside. Like a filing cabinet, fields are used to describe and organize library resources into “files” called records.  When a search term is entered, the computer finds records that contain the search term in one or more of the fields. All databases share this structure but vary in appearance, the types and formats of the content stored inside, and the terminology used to organize that content.

This is similar to vehicles; all vehicles have the same function, but vary by manufacturer, brand, and model. In general, there are two types:

1. General, multi-subject databases cover a broad range of subjects and index thousands of resources in multiple formats
2. Subject-specific or format-specific databases cover a particular subject or discipline and/or index a particular type of publication, such as streaming videos, e-books, or newspapers

Watch this short tutorial to learn more about library databases:

A search engine like Google only searches about 20% of all information stored on the internet. This is called the “open web.” The 80% of information not accessible through search engines is called the “invisible web.” This is where information owned by individuals or companies is stored, including library resources.

While it is possible to find scholarly sources on the open web, it can be challenging as many tools, such as Google Scholar, lead to websites with paywalls. This means payment is required for full-text access to resources such as journal articles. 

Library databases contain multiple types of information - images, streaming videos, book chapters, and so on. One of the most common formats in databases are periodicals. 

Periodical is a categorical term referring to publications produced as an open-ended series at regular intervals, or “periods,” such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. Periodicals are issued in both print and electronic formats with a title indicating content that is focused on a particular subject area, audience, and/or geographic location.

There are four major types of periodicals: popular, news-based, trade/professional, and academic.

1) Popular - Examples: People; Cosmopolitan; National Geographic; Vogue; Sports Illustrated

• Intended to entertain or persuade, usually with an agenda to sell products or services
• Brief articles with short, catchy titles that have no obvious structure and do not contain original research, but sometimes contain summaries and popular representations of research, making it accessible to a non-specialized audience
• Many photographs, illustrations, and colourful graphic layouts used for aesthetic purposes to draw in and influence readers
• Attractive glossy format with lots of colour
• Simple language in order to meet a very basic level of education
• Extensive advertising designed to appeal to the general public or a specific demographic
• Published on a weekly or monthly basis

2) News-Based - Examples: Calgary Herald; The Global and Mail; Time; MacLean's

• Contains information on local, regional, national, or international events; editorialsand opinion columns; and entertainment reviews
• Historical newspapers can provide unique eyewitness accounts of events
• Useful for acquiring time-sensitive information as content is extremely current
• Provides mainly objective information, but does not contain scholarly analysis
• Written for a general audience with plain, simple language
• Original source of the information is often unclear, as articles have no in-text citations or reference lists
• Published daily, weekly, or monthly

3) Trade or Professional - Examples: Advertising Age; Harvard Business Review; Nutrition Health Review

• Provides news and information to professionals in a particular industry
• Articles do not contain original research, but focus on applying research to practical and real-life situations (i.e. discussing how teachers can apply the latest research on learning theories to their teaching)
• Assumes the reader is an educated and experienced professional, so specialized vocabulary and technical jargon is often used
• Funded through both subscriptions and advertising, with extensive advertising aimed at people in the field or industry
• Photographs and illustrations used to support content of the article and also for aesthetic purposes to draw in readers
• Published on an annual, biannual, or quarterly basis

4) Academic (Scholarly & Peer-Reviewed) - Examples: Nursing Philosophy; Journal of Business Communication

• Presents original empirical research and/or theoretical analysis
• Most articles are evaluated before publication through the peer review process
• Articles are written by scholars or researchers in the field, discipline, or specialty and contain advanced, technical language appropriate to the discipline
• Illustrations, graphs, charts and photographs are used only to support the content of articles
• Articles are lengthy and have substantial in-text citations with endnotes, footnotes and/or bibliographies
• Plain appearance with little use of colour and minimal advertising
• Published on an annual, biannual, or quarterly basis
• Contains one or more of these terms in the title - Journal, Studies, Applied, Analysis or Quarterly 

Periodicals typically contain several types of articles with varying purposes and characteristics. 

This means that academic journals do NOT publish only scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Other types of articles, such as editorials, commentaries, opinion pieces and interviews, are also published in academic journals.

Click below to learn about the characteristics of these common types of articles found in the library's databases:

Scientific, Peer-Reviewed Research Articles in Academic Journals

Theoretical Peer-Reviewed Research Articles in Academic Journals

Review Article (such as a Literature Review, Systematic Review, or Meta-Analysis) in Academic or Professional/Trade Journal

Case Study or Case Report in Academic or Professional/Trade Journals

Editorial, Commentary or Reply in Academic, Trade/Professional, News-Based or Popular Periodicals

Opinion Pieces in Academic, Trade/Professional, News-Based or Popular Periodicals

Interviews in Academic, Trade/Professional, News-Based or Popular Periodicals

News-Based Articles in Academic, Trade/Professional, News-Based or Popular Periodicals

A “keyword” is simply a concrete word or phrase that describes the main concepts in a research question or topic. If you have used an internet search engine, you are probably familiar with keyword searching.

A keyword search:

• Finds the word wherever it appears in the database or library catalogue
• Is the most flexible and broadest type of search that is best for initial exploration of a research topic or question
• May yield too many results that are not relevant to the research topic or question
• Is useful for when the keyword is form of jargon or a term that is new or otherwise distinctive, such as personal names or brands

NEVER type more than one or two words into a search box. Use Advanced Search for more search boxes to add keywords:

To expand search results, drop the ending of keywords and place an asterisk (*) next to the root of term to find all variations such as the plural and adjectival forms:

Generating Search Terms Tutorial

This video tutorial will show you how to find and generate effective keywords for internet or database searching:

Boolean operators allow you to connect search terms together to get more focused results. The most common are AND, OR and NOT:

AND

The operator AND is used to narrow search results.

It retrieves results that contain all the terms it separates and excludes the records that contain just one of the terms.

Example 1: youth AND drugs

In this example, your search will only retrieve records that have both the term 'youth' and the term 'drugs.'

Example 2 : child AND development AND play

In this example, your search will only retrieve records that have all terms -- 'child', 'development'  and 'play.'

OR

The operator OR is used to expand search results.

Using OR between two or more search terms will retrieve results that contain either or all search terms. OR is usually used to search for synonyms or related words.

Example 1: native OR aboriginal

In this example, your search will retrieve results that have either or both of the terms 'native' and 'aboriginal.'

Example 2: job OR career OR profession

In this example, your search will retrieve results that have either, any, or all of the terms 'job', 'profession' and 'career.'

NOT

The operator NOT is used to narrow search results by excluding one or more words.

It retrieves the records that contain the first term but eliminates any records that contain the term which is entered after NOT. It should be used with caution as it may eliminate relevant records.

Example 1: depression NOT economic

In this example, your search will retrieve results that have only the term 'depression' and any record which contains the term 'economic' will be left out of your results.

Example 2: crime AND London NOT Ontario

In this example, your search will retrieve results that have only the terms 'London' and 'crime' and any result which contains the term 'Ontario' will be not be included in your records.

A field is used to “file” a library resource in the catalogue or database. Fields appear on the catalogue or database record and vary according to the format of the library resource.

This is an example of a catalogue record for an academic journal article. There are fields for the article title, name of the journal (source), author(s), database, and so on. These fields are used to describe and index the library resource:

To narrow search results by field, choose from the drop-down menu next to the search box:

A field search:

• Is best for known items, meaning you have some knowledge of specific characteristics such as author, title of article, and so on
• Must have the exact spelling and grammatical structure:
  • For example, most databases format the author field with by last name first followed by the initial of the first name, so a search for “Anne Smith” would not be successful but search for “Smith, A” would be successful
• May narrow results too much, missing other relevant resources

When you use LibSearch or library databases, you will often get too many results.

In LibSearch and most databases, the left-hand or right-hand column of the search results page has many limiters to narrow and improve the accuracy and relevancy of results.

To begin, click on the arrow to open the list of options for that category. Choose an option or click show more for additional options.

The categories of filters and limiters include:

• Format of resource, such as print book, academic journal, or eBook
• Subject headings, which describe the content of the item
• Language of the publication
• Geographic location such as country, province, state or city
• Library database where the item is located, such as Academic Search Complete or Nursing Reference Center

In library databases, subject headings are a type of standardized “tag” used to index and organize resources on the same topic, regardless of the words used in the actual text.

Subject headings are useful because they collate under one umbrella term all the synonyms, singular or plural forms, and spelling variants of a given term. They provide a controlled vocabulary that relieves the searcher from having to search for every variation of the term in order to find all relevant resources.

Also referred to as subject terms or descriptors, subject headings vary depending on the database. A list of subject headings is typically provided within the thesaurus or index, which can be used to begin a subject search.

For example, the Business Source Complete database has a link to its Thesaurus that provides the option to search or browse by keyword:

After searching by keyword, such as accounting, a list of subject headings pertaining to that subject is retrieved:

Follow these tips to improve the quality of hits in LibSearch and the library's databases:

1. Use concrete and neutral words.
2. Never type more the one or two words in a search box. Go to the Advanced Search page to separate keywords into multiple boxes.
3. If you are not finding what you need, try to change or add keywords.
4. Use limiters on the left-hand or right-hand side of the screen to refine results.
5. Choose a field from the drop-down menu next to the search box to narrow results. 
6. Use Boolean operators and truncation to expand and narrow results. 
7. Ask for help! Use webchat, email circulation@bowvalleycollege.ca or visit the LLC front desk.