Database FAQ

1. What are ‘Articles and Databases’?

They are indexes and databases that provide access to electronic resources that have abstracts, citations and full-text articles. University of Mississippi Libraries subscribe to more than 170 databases which are available to UM faculty, staff and students.

2. What is InterLibrary Loan that appears on the search results?

When an article or book that you are looking for is not available through UM Libraries, it can be requested from another library by the InterLibrary Loan department. You can request an article by logging into your Interlibrary Loan account at ILL. Once your request is received, the ILL department will process your request and notify you via email when your article or book arrives.

3. How can I search several databases at once?

You can use our library search engine called ‘Article Quick Search’ which is located on the "Articles and Databases" page. The library search engine will search multiple databases at once and provide more results.

4. What is ‘Get it’ and what does it do when I click on it?

‘Get it’ provides links from a citation in a database 1) to the full text of that article if available, 2) to the catalog to find if we have the article in print or microform format, and 3) to InterLibrary Loan where you can request the article if we don’t subscribe to the particular journal.

5. Why does ‘Get it’ give me multiple ‘full-text’ article links?

Sometimes UM Libraries get access to a particular journal from multiple databases, so we provide links to all of them. If one of the database links happens to be down, you can access full text from another database.

6. How do I choose which databases to search?

If you are looking for articles on general topics, you may want to use our ‘Popular Databases’ such as EbscoHost Academic Search Premier, Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, JSTOR, etc. If you want to search subject specific database, then click on the ‘Databases by Subject’ link. If you are looking for articles from multiple databases, you may want to try ‘Article Quick Search’ which will retrieve articles from several databases.

7. What is ‘HTML full text’? ‘PDF full-text’? Abstract?

‘HTML full text’ is Hyper Text Markup Language full text document. Typically indexers enter a particular journal article manually by keying in the information. Most of the HTML full text documents will not have charts or graphs of an article.

‘PDF full text’ is Portable Document Format full text document. The indexers will scan the journal article and save it as a PDF document. A PDF full text document can be considered as a photocopy of an article. PDF documents will have charts, graphs and tables associated with an article.

An abstract is a brief summary of a journal, article, book, etc. Abstracts do not provide the text of an article.

8. Why am I not able to access ‘SciFinder Scholar’ and ‘Beilstein’ from my home?

Due to the licensing agreement with the vendors, we are not able to permit remote access to certain databases. You will be able to access these databases only from on campus.

9. Can I print or save articles from the databases?

Yes. Many databases will let you print articles by providing you with a print icon. You can also click on the ‘print’ icon on the browser window. But the database print icon will save you from printing unwanted and redundant pages.

Many databases would allow you to save articles. However some databases may restrict the number of articles that you save at one time.

10. Can I email articles from the databases?

Yes. Most of the databases will allow you to email the articles. You can send the articles to your email address from the library and you can print them later somewhere else.

11. How do I access an e-book?

You can search for e-books (digital versions of traditional books) through the UM library's E-Book Search Web page or through the online catalog.

12. How can I tell if a particular journal, magazine or newspaper is available through one of the full-text databases purchased by the library?

UM Libraries offer an electronic journal finding tool called Journal Finder. Also, all of the electronic journals available through UM databases are listed alphabetically in the catalog. The designation [electronic resource] follows the title, and the databases in which the title is available are list in the detailed record.

13. How can I get a copy of an article that I can’t find in the fulltext electronic journals collection?

UM Libraries might have print or microform copies of some journals that are not available in fulltext format electronically. Please check the library catalog at http://umiss.lib.olemiss.edu/ to see if we have the title in print or microform format.