To access, click Find Database in the menu.
Find Database enables you to locate specific databases from the wide range of databases made available by the institution. You can search the database on the spot if the icon is displayed next to it, or collect a few databases in your clipboard and then do a MetaSearch of them all. In addition, you can create your own database lists using your clipboard via My Databases.
Three methods of finding a database are provided:

• By Title: You can specify that the title of the database starts with, contains or is an exact match of the term that you enter. You can also click a letter in the alphabet to see a list of all the databases starting with this letter.
• Locate: You can specify several criteria that identify the required database such as title, category and type, vendor, or any other word appearing in the description (metadata) of the database.
• Category: You can specify a category and sub-category to display a list of databases cataloged for that sub-category.

Select the Show all option to show all the databases that match the criteria you specify, or Show unrestricted to show only those databases to which you are allowed access (not locked).

See also

Find Database - Database List
Find Database - Search in Database
Find Database - Results

Do one of the following to search by title.

• Click on one of the A to Z letters to display a list of databases whose title starts with this letter.
• Type in all or part of the database title in the Title field. Select Starts with, Contains or Exact. You can use a question mark as wild card (meaning type "master?" to locate MasterFILE Elite (EBSCO), MasterFILE Premier (EBSCO), and MasterFILE Select (EBSCO)). Then click .

Note: When you use the Starts with function, you can browse backwards and forwards through the full database list using the Next and Previous options.

Enter your search term(s) to locate the database(s) relevant to your search area, as described below, and click . A list of databases that meet the criteria that you specify is displayed. You can fill in any or all of these fields.

• Enter one or more words in the Title field. You can use a question mark as a wild card (meaning type "master?" to locate MasterFILE Elite (EBSCO), MasterFILE Premier (EBSCO), and MasterFILE Select (EBSCO)).
• Enter the name of the vendor in the Database Vendor field. Here too, you can use the wildcard.
• Select a category to which the database applies.
• Enter any word that may appear in the database title or any descriptive information in the Any Word field.
• Institutions assign types to databases, such as index, library catalog, or encyclopedia. Select the type of the database in the Type field.

The left side of the window shows the categories of databases defined by the institution.
Click on a category to display a list of sub-categories defined under the category. The number of databases in each sub-category is shown next to it.
Click on a sub-category to select it or select All and click .

Find Database results can be displayed in two views: Table View and Brief View.
Table View displays the databases in a table, one row for each database. Brief View provides the same options as Table View, with the addition of a description for each database.
At the top of the results, you can see the first title word of the first and last databases that appear in the currently displayed page.
Click Next or Previous to display another page.
Only the Starts with option enables you to browse the entire database list. The other database lists displayed show only databases that meet the specified criteria.
Once you have found the database in which you are interested, you have the following options:

• To display more information about the database, click .
• To search the database using MetaLib, click .
• To add this database to the database clipboard, click the icon, it changes to .
• Databases that are not authorized for searching are indicated with a symbol for authenticated users and for guests. Clicking on the lock icon brings you to the log in page.
• Click the database name to link to the database's Web site.
• To search the databases in your clipboard, click Go to MetaSearch

The Search in Database function enables you to search in the database that you selected from the list of databases found using Find Database.

1. Enter a term in the search box. You can also use Advanced Search.
2. Click to start the search.
   While MetaLib is searching, the page is refreshed every few seconds showing its progress. This display shows the status of the search and the number of hits found. You can click Cancel to stop the search and start again.
3. When the search is completed, you will see the Search in Database Results.

Note: If the database is configured to show the search results in its native interface, you need to click on View Results to see the results.

Once you have used Find Database to find the database that you would like to search, and you have searched in that database, the Search in Database Results list is displayed. This results list is similar to other MetaLib results lists except that it only shows the results found in a single database.
Results can be displayed in three views: Table View, Brief View and Full View. You can toggle between the different views.

Note: If you have authenticated yourself, you can set your preferred view as part of your preferences.

At the top of the results, you can see the term(s) you searched for and the total number of results found.

See also

Search in Database - Browsing Through the Results

Various options are provided to browse through the results, as follows:

• Click Next or Previous to display another page. You can set the number of results displayed per page as part of your preferences.
• Enter a number in the Jump to # field and click to jump to a record according to its location in the results.
• The results are displayed in the order they were returned from the database. For some databases, the results can be sorted by Author, Title, or Year by selecting an option in the Sort by field.

Table View displays the records in a table, one row for each record. Table View provides the following options:

• Click the Title or the record sequential number to see the record's Full View.
• Click the database name to link to the database's Web site. Where possible, the same record is displayed in the database's native interface.
• Click to save a record in your basket. After you add a record to the basket, the icon changes to Your basket is a temporary storage for records that you find interesting. You can later move records from the basket to eShelf folder, save records to disk (in various formats) or email them.
• Click , to use SFX which provides access to a range of relevant electronic resources, such as the full text of articles or holdings information in your library's OPAC.

The Brief View provides citation information, in addition to the information provided in the Table View. The Brief View provides the following options:

• Click a Title to see the Full View of the record.
• Click the database name to link to the database's Web site. Where possible, the same record is displayed in the database's native interface.
• Click to save a record in your basket. You can later move records from the basket to an eShelf folder, save records to disk (in various formats) or email them. After you add a record to the basket, the icon changes to
• Click , to use SFX which provides access to a range of relevant electronic resources, such as the full text of articles or holdings information in your library's OPAC.

Full View provides all a record's information. It shows a page for each record and highlights the words you queried.

• Click , to use SFX which provides access to a range of relevant electronic resources, such as the full text of articles or holdings information in your library's OPAC.
• Click to save a record in your basket. You can later move records from the basket to an eShelf folder, save records to disk (in various formats) or email them. Once you added the record to the basket, the icon changes to .
• Click , to save the results to a file on your PC. A window is displayed in which you can select the format and encoding of the file to be saved. From the Record Format field, select one of the following:

  Standard:

  Saves the file as a standard text file in a format similar to that displayed.

  MARC21 format:

  Saves the file with MARC21 cataloging tags.

  Citation manager:

  Saves the file in the format of the Citation Manager to which you have access: RefWorks, EndNote, ProCite or Reference Manager.

  From the Encoding field, select one of the following:
  • UTF-8
  • ISO 8859-1
  • ASCII
• Click , to email the record. A window is displayed in which you can enter the details of the file to be sent. From the Record Format field, select one of the following:

  Standard:

  Saves the file as a standard text file in a format similar to that displayed.

  MARC21 format:

  Saves the file with MARC21 cataloging tags.

  From the Encoding field, select one of the following:
  • UTF-8
  • ISO 8859-1
  • ASCII
• Click , to directly link to the full text without going through the SFX menu. This option only appears when available.