Infotrac

Infotrac includes 6 separate databases--Custom Newspapers, Expanded Academic ASAP, General Business File ASAP, General Reference Center, LegalTrac, and Infotrac OneFile.  Select the appropriate database for your search. 

Infotrac Expanded Academic is the most popular of these databases and leads to different types of searches: Basic Search, Subject Guide Search, Publication Search, and Advanced Search.

Basic Search

• Search for words in subject, keyword, or the entire document.  
• Results may be viewed from tabs marked:  Academic Journals, Magazines, Reference, News, or Multimedia.  
• If you have too many results, you may select the option Expand/Limit and check Documents with full text and Peer-reviewed publications, then limit your results by Publication dates, e.g., 2003-2006, etc.  See "Limiting the Search" in this document.
• The most recent articles are available first.
• Subject terms and See references are provided in the left margin for additional searching.

Search Results:  Mark, View/Print, Save, or Email

• You may mark the results that are appropriate to your needs, then select Marked Items to view only those marked.
• Select Full-text or PDF pages (an exact copy of the pages from the journal) to view an article.
• To print, select the print button.  Remember to print at the library costs .10 per page.
• You can download your article to disk or email it to yourself for viewing and printing later.

Other Available Features

• Select About this publication to view the latest issues of the publication.
• Select How to cite to view citations of marked articles (follow your instructor's guide for MLA or APA citation).
• Select Source citation from to view citation of your article from the database.
• Select Subjects for other subject terms to search.

Subject Guide Search

• Enter your search word/s in the Find box and click Search.
• Select Expand/Limit and customize your search (see "Limiting the Search" in this document).
• Results provide Related Subjects, See references, , and Subdivisions of your search terms, which you can further use to narrow, broaden or find more related terms for your search.

Advanced Search

This search allows you to build a search expression from basic to complex by using AND, OR, and NOT (Boolean operators).

• Click the down arrow next to "Keyword" to select the index, e.g., kw, subject, and enter your search term.
• Click the down arrow to chose if you want to expand (OR) or limit (AND, NOT) your search.
• Click the down arrow next to “Keyword” to select the index and enter your second search term.
• Repeat Steps 3 & 4 and enter your third search term.
• Limit your results, then click Search.
• Note:  You can add more search terms to your search by clicking on: Add a row.

LIMITING THE SEARCH (OPTIONAL)

To documents with full text - Check this box if you only want to retrieve articles that contain the entire full text. 
Remember:  Articles that are not full text may be available in hard copy at Trident or one of the other libraries in the Charleston area,  i.e., C of C., CSU, The Citadel, MUSC, or Charleston County Public Library.  If at another library, the article can be obtained through Interlibrary Loan (see staff at the Circulation Desk).

To peer-reviewed publications – Peer-reviewed journals are those in which articles, before they are published, must be reviewed by a body of peers, experts in the same field as the writer. 

To documents with images – Limit results to only those documents that contain graphics, such as photos, charts, illustrations, etc.

By Date – If needed, specify a date or date range. (ex: 2003-2006, or,  9/11/2001-2/1/2002).

By Publication Title – Specify a journal and Infotrac will only search that specific periodical. You can select up to10 journals to be searched at one time by using the “Browse Publication Title” link, selecting the journals, and clicking the submit selections button. Remember, magazines like: Time, Newsweek, etc. are not scholarly journals.

By Publication Subject - Specify a journal topic and Infotrac will only search that specific topic within all its available journals.

The list of search results appears with the following links:  Full Text with graphics, PDF page/s, About this publication, and How to cite.  See Search Results and Other Available Features above for information.

NOTE:  Remember, through Interlibrary Loan, articles that are not full text may be available.  Also, any citation with the words "Library Holdings" nearby, means the periodical (magazine, newspaper) is one that TTC subscribes to and may be available in our library in hard copy format.
• Print - By selecting the print button the article or citation will be made available for printing.  Click the "OK" button to begin printing. (10 cents per copy)
• E-mail - Send full-text articles, summaries, source information, etc. to an email account.

For additional HELP and other features, e.g., advanced searching, click HELP on the menu located at the top right of the page.