Learning to use the ATLA-RDB in FirstSearch
How do you find articles in periodicals, or essays within collected works, or book reviews? The best indexing tool for this information in the field of religious studies is the ATLA Religion Database (RDB). The ATLA-RDB is now available to authorized patrons using any computer with internet access and a web browser. It is provided by OCLC through the FirstSearch interface.
How
to connect to ATLA-RDB online
On our Library public website, choose Online Databases. Click on ATLA-RDB periodicals index. If you are on our campus network (in the Library, faculty offices, etc) you will be connected seamlessly to the resource you requested. If you are off campus, you will be asked to supply your user ID and password. You will see this display :
This is not the same user ID and password you use to login to the Morton Library catalog.
For Union-PSCE students, staff and faculty : your network login (the same one you use for our campus email system or Blackboard) should give you remote access to these resources. Do not use the UTSNT\ prefix; just use the personal name part of your network user ID (such as jane.doe or jdoe).
For students, staff and faculty of BTSR : you may need to check with our Librarian for Academic Computing Support, to make sure your current user ID and password are entered into our proxy server. Please contact Leland Deeds at 804-278-4217 or ldeeds@union-psce.edu for further information.
The
search screen
When the OCLC FirstSearch screen opens, we recommend that you go at once to Advanced Search, because that screen offers you the options you will need to search effectively.
Use
the drop-down menus beside each Search for: box to select
the category you want. Use one or more of the spaces. You can enter up
to three terms in any selection of categories to combine ideas and target
your search.
Note that the little boxes on the left side of this illustration give you a choice of the Boolean operators and, or, not.
The Browse button
Notice the gray buttons on the far right side of the illustration above. That button will take you to the Browse indexes. You will need this function for special searches discussed later in this tutorial.
Truncation and special symbols
FirstSearch technique depends to a large extent on truncation and other special stand-in symbols. For example :
| confuci* | at the end of the word, the * symbol will retrieve Confucius, Confucian, Confucianism |
| vine? | will retrieve vine or vineyard |
| wom#n | using # to represent one letter, you will retrieve woman or women |
| church+ | for plurals, the + symbol will retrieve church or churches |
You will need truncation symbols for special searches discussed later in this tutorial, especially Scripture Searching and Personal Name Searching.
Limit to full text
Some of the articles indexed in the ATLA-RDB are available in the form of full-text scanned images. You may choose to retrieve ONLY records for articles that are available in full-text form online. To do this, check the box labelled Limit to full text :
Once you receive your results, you will be able to click on View full text on remote site (ATLA) to go directly to the scanned article. For more information, see Viewing Full Text and Journal Title Searching.
The Help button
The help button in the upper left area of each screen is context-sensitive and offers more information and examples than can be reproduced in this tutorial. Try using it to help you understand how FirstSearch functions.
