Electronic resources
are so readily available now that some researchers no longer use printed
sources to find information. Although electronic resources provide access
to information, you must be careful not to rely upon them to answer
all of your research needs.
Electronic databases
provide opportunities for libraries to share bibliographic information.
Both primary and secondary research materials are cataloged in national
databases so researchers can search many libraries at one time for information.
The databases mentioned below are used by librarians for cataloging
a range of materials and used by researchers to search for materials
across all media.
Bibliographic
Catalogs:
Firstsearch/WorldCat/OCLC
Similar Source
to Consult:
RLIN/NUCMC
Firstsearch is
a network of shared bibliographic databases. OCLC member libraries pay
to have access to Firstsearch and supply catalog records of their holdings
to the Firstsearch network. Firstsearch is made available to the public
at libraries who pay to have access to these services.
The subject databases
included in Firstsearch are menu driven and user friendly. One of the
databases is WorldCat, which allows you to search across media - books,
journals, manuscripts, sound recordings, video, and book reviews. You
can enter search terms by subject, title, or author and you can limit
your search by type, date, or language. Once you conduct a search,
the system pulls up records related to your search. By clicking the
LIB command, the database will list of the libraries that hold
the items you need.
