Librarian: Capella Library, Allison Speaking. How may I help you?
Learner: Hi, I've been trying to search the databases for hours and I can't find anything on my topic.
Librarian: I'm happy you called! What is your topic?
Learner: For my paper I need to find 6 articles on diversity in the workplace.
Librarian: Hmmm, have you considered how you would like to narrow that topic?
Learner: Not really.
Librarian: Ok, what issues related to diversity would you like to investigate?
Learner: Well I'm a nurse, and we have many generations working together which is challenging sometimes. Would that be a narrowed topic?
Librarian: Yes, that's a great start. Lets see if we can find some articles on that. Are you at a computer?
Learner: Yes, I'm looking at the library page right now.
Librarian: Ok. Go ahead and click on the link labeled Databases A-Z.
Learner: Ok.
Librarian: Ok, so looking at the list of databases, a great database for your research topic would be Academic Search Premier. Academic Search Premier is a general subject database that has articles on most academic topics. Another good database is CINAHL. It is a database with nursing journals. Let's go ahead and start with Academic Search Premier.
Learner: Ok, I clicked on the databases. It looks like I'm in the database. It says EBSCOhost, is that right?
Librarian: Yes, the company that sells us our subscription to this database is EBSCOhost, so you're in the right place. One thing you'll notice is that there are three search boxes. We'll use these three search boxes to separate our keywords and phrases we'll use for our search. Now go ahead and let's try nursing in the 1st search box. In the 2nd search box let's try generations.
Learner: Ok, then do I hit search?
Librarian: Yes, go ahead and click "search." How many results did you get?
Learner: Over 6,000. Wow, that's a lot of articles!
Librarian: Yes it is - too many articles. So let's try to narrow it down to a more manageable number. Let's change the "Select a field" drop down menu for the word generations to "AB Abstract." Then hit search. This tells the database to only bring back results which have your keywords in the abstract, or summary of the article.
Learner: Ok, now I got over 200.
Librarian: Great, let's do one more thing. Right now the results are in date order, with the most current at the top. We can tell the database to sort the results by relevance. It doesn't change the number of results--just the order. Use the drop down menu labeled "sort by" to change that.
Learner: Some of these look pretty good!
Librarian: Great! I would suggest trying this same strategy in CINAHL. You can use the same keywords because you will be searching different journals. Would you like to do that now?
Learner: No, I think I've got it for now.
Librarian: Sounds good, well be sure to call us back if you have any more questions or need to find more articles. Have a great day!
Learner: Thanks, you too!