Bibliographic databases are computerized indexes that contain references to published literature including journal articles, books, reports, and more. They allow users to search for information on a specific topic by author, title, and other fields. The Hisn Al Shumoukh Library subscribes to multidisciplinary databases like Proquest Central as well as subject-specific ones for topics like education, medicine, and more. While Google is easy to use, bibliographic databases provide scholarly articles and better search capabilities using Boolean operators and limiters. Developing an effective search strategy involves determining information needs, selecting appropriate databases, and using keywords and operators to search.

2. What are bibliographic databases?
• They are computerized indexes of words selected from
articles, book chapters, conference papers...etc., compiled
in an alphabetical order and provided with search facilities.
• an organized digital collection of references to published
literature, including journal and newspaper articles,
conference proceedings, reports, government and legal
publications, patents, books, etc. ...
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3. Bibliographic Databases?
A-Z
A-Z
A-Z
Database

4. Why using a database?
• It can be used to search for information on a specific topic.
Most databases allow you to search for journals articles by
author, title and other fields. Other databases allow you to
search certain information sources such as conference
papers, patents, technical reports, theses . “This process
also called literature search”.

5. Which database I should use?
• You can log to Hisn A’Shumookh Library
webpage, there you will find electronic
resources listed as: databases, electronic
journals, electronic books and electronic
references. The library subscribes to different
databases: a multidisciplinary (Proquest
Central, Emarefa), specific topics Edusearch,
Ecolink, Medline Complete), specific sources
(Proquest Dissertations) , citation manager
(Refworks) .

6. Is scholar Google enough to search for
information?
Although Google services are free and easy to use, they differ
from database provided by library in:
• Majority of articles need subscription
• Many articles are not from academic (scholarly) journals
• Search refines are limited in Google.

7. How to plan for a literature search?
You need to answer the following questions:
• What are you looking for? ( type of information and
sources)
• Where are you going to search? (selecting database)
• How are you going to search? ( preparing a search strategy
using the Boolean operators)

8. Search Question
• I want some information about the effect
of bird flue in human

9. Consulting other library resources
• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias
• Thesaurus

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11. 11

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14. More Terms
• Bird flu
• Avian flu
• Avian Influenza

15. What are Boolean operators?
How to use them in a search strategy?
Because many databases do not accept a free phrases you
must search using keywords and combined them with
Boolean operators (AND, OR)
• User question: I want some information on:
vaccine used for swine flu
• To plan for a good search strategy, you first select the
keywords and you can consult some tools to get
synonyms and be informed about the relationship
between terms such as: scientific dictionaries,
taxonomy dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesaurus… etc.

16. AND
• to narrow your search telling the database that all search
terms should be presented in results, so it decrees number
of references retrieved and make your search more
specific.

17. AND
humanAvian influenza

18. OR
• to broaden your search telling the database that searching
terms are equal to present. So it increases number of
references retrieved and make search more
comprehensive.

19. OR
Bird fluAvian influenza

20. Limitations
• field: title
• field: year of publication
• Filed: type of publication ( article, book, Theses..etc)

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23. AND
Field : title
Date rang
Good
Results
2000
200
20

24. www.hsl.om

25. Library Catalogue
http://hslopac.rca.gov.om

26. Service Subject
Coverage
Notes
Medline Complete Medicine & Nursing smart phones app
Proquest Central Multidisciplinary
Ebrary Multidisciplinary smart phones app
Proquest Dissertations Multidisciplinary

27. What benefits you gain from opening
an account in a database?
Signing for an account will enable you to have a profile for:
• Saving questions
• Saving marked records
• Customizing service (input and output)
• Setting up alerts and rss feeds

28. Alerting service
• It is a service that keep you updated with the latest
developments in your area of interest by receiving an
automatic alerts via e-mail. Through this service you can
choose to be emailed with results of a question (strategy),
alerted by journal table of contents, follow your favorite
author writings.

29. RSS -feeds
• It stands for really simple syndication or Rich
Site Summary.
• Instead of visiting many sites such as electronic databases, e-
periodicals and e-books, this service will save your time and effort by
getting your concern updates in a way that look as a news bulletin.
You can determine what you want to receive (i.e. search results, a
scholar latest scientific production, periodical table of contents, book
reviews) through your favorite Reader. The information will be
displayed and arranged according to the system of your choice.
There are many free readers available; such as Google Reader.

30. exporting results to a citation manager?
• Majority of HSL databases allow you to export references
to an external citation manager software such as: endnote,
Reference Manager, ProCite and RefWorks (available at
HSL). Some databases provide free citation managers.

31. Remote access?
• all library E-resources are accessible remotely (only for
members) when the library is closed during the private visit
of HM.
• Some resources are accessible through smart phones
(medline complete, Ebrary, Emarefa)

32. Inter Library Loan
• It is a service provided by Reader Services Department that
satisfies your request from other library in case that
information you need is not available at HSL.

33. Searching on your behalf
• If not able to visit the HSL in person, you can
send your request to hsl@rca.gov.om or fill
the smart form at the Ask Librarian page.
• You will receive a reply in less that 24 hours
with fulltext.
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