Service Highlights: Library Guides

Library Guide 15: InfoTrac Basics

Info Trac is Divided Into Two Parts

EXPANDED ACADEMIC INDEX :
Citations/abstracts to articles in magazines, journals, and the New York Times.

NATIONAL NEWSPAPER INDEX:
Citations/abstract from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor.

A citation to an article consist of the title, author, and page number of the article, as well as the volume number, issue number, date, and name of the periodical it was published in. Below is a sample Info Trac citation:

What is justice for a sixth-grade killer? (Analysis of how states try juveniles as adults and laws that are in place to punish parents whose children access guns or provide inadequate supervision of their children) Charlotte Faltermeyer. Time, April 6, 1998, v151, n13, p 36 (2).

Three Search methods are Available in Info Trac

SUBJECT SEARCH
Type in your subject and press enter. The Computer then looks for the term in its subject list.A subject heading generally consist of one or two word descriptive terms, and can include names of peoples or companies. for example :

         gun control

KEY WORD SEARCH :
In the key word mode you can combine terms using the Boolean operator "and ". The computer looks for individual words rather than prescribed subject headings in its databank.For Example :

       Children and guns

POWER SEARCH
Press F10 for Power Search. Power Search allows you to use the Boolean operators"and", "or", and "not" in formulating your research statements. You can also search by journal name, subject, keyword, date, title, and author.

Important Keys

KEYS	FUNCTIONS
ESC:	to go back one screen
Arrow Keys:	to move the blue bar by line
Page Down/Up	to move the blue bar to the next or previous page
F2	to start over
F4	to mark/save the records you want ot print
F3	to print all records you marked/saved

Printing Note : The records wont print until you exit out of the Info Trac databases. To get out, press F2 to start over, then ESC to exit Info Trac.

Locating Periodicals in the library

Info Trac does not tell you which journals, magazines or newspapers the library owns. To determine what periodicals LIU has, you must consult the periodicals holdings book, LIU Periodicals, located on the counter near the terminals. The book is arranged in alphabetical order by the full name of the periodical. To the right of the name you can also see what years we have the title for.

Locating Journals Not Available in the Library

If our library doesnt own a periodical or doesnt have holding for the year you are looking for , ask a reference librarian about ALB cards, METRO cards, or the Library's Interlibrary loan services.