Access: Open an Internet Browser at any networked workstation on campus.       Start Searching        Off Campus Access

• On Campus: from the Ely Library Home Page (http://www.lib.wsc.ma.edu) select Expanded Academic ASAP from the Quick Links menu.
• Off-Campus Access (Only available to Westfield State College Faculty, Staff, and Students): go to the Off-Campus Databases page (http://www.lib.wsc.ma.edu/offcampdbmenu.html) and select Expanded Academic ASAP.  You will be prompted for a username and password (this is the same username and password used to login to a Westfield State College computer on campus.).

• Search Screen: Provides you with a Subject Guide Search(default), a Basic Search, a Publication Search, or an Advanced Search with terms that you supply. Select your searching method on the top bar before typing your terms in the Find box and click on Search or press enter on your keyboard.

• Subject Guide Search (see sample screen below): Lets you search for topics that contain your search words. When typing in terms in the search box, it is usually best to search for only one or two words.  This produces a list that groups articles by their main headings, or what they are ABOUT, for easier review.




• Basic Search (see sample screen below): Each of the following searches produce a citation list with the most recent articles listed first. Search for words in:
• Subject - Searches topics (see above) by which articles are organized
• Keyword - Searches the title, author, citation, and abstract fields
• Full text - Searches for all articles that contain your search words anywhere. Full text searching is not recommended unless the term used is very specific.

• Publication Search: Searches for information on specific magazine, journal, or newspaper titles.  If you know which issue an article is in, you can find it by selecting the appropriate journal or magazine and clicking on the issue you need. You can also find out whether a particular periodical is scholarly.
• Advanced Search (see sample screen below):  Searches various indexes that you select: date (da), keyword (ke), author (au), subject (su), and document title (ti), and for journal title, use publication title (pu). For publication date (pd), you may specify "before" or "after" any date you chose.
• Click on the drop down menu to Select index(es).
• Click in the entry box and enter one or more words related to the index you have selected.
• Select the appropriate logical operators (AND, OR, NOT) to complete your search.
• Click on Start.

Clicking on the Subject: brings you to a citation list (see below) for this heading with folders listing number of hits for different types of materials (ex: Magazines & Journals / Reference / News / Multimedia). Bold type represents those headings most frequently found in Expanded Academic ASAP.

Subdivisions: lets you narrow your search by viewing the subdivisions of a heading.

Related Subjects: shows you other subject headings.

See (not shown here):   provides a link to the accepted subject heading

• Citation (enough information to locate the article elsewhere); Abstract (citation and a brief summary); Full-text (the complete article online); and # PDF pages (where "#" represents the number of pages which include pictures and graphs); About this publication (check here to find out if something is scholarly); How to Cite (Do NOT RELY ON THIS for your citations. As of 9/1/05, it is inaccurate. Base your format on the WSC Citation Guides http://www.lib.wsc.ma.edu/citation.htm).
• Mark - Clicking in a box next to a citation bookmarks an article for later review or printing.
• To review, print, or email marked items, click on    on the top navigation bar.
• Options will be limited to Browser Printing without Acrobat Reader options (see below).
• Mark all items on this page - Clicking in the box marks all articles on the page for later review or printing.
• Expand/Limit -  lets you limit your found citations to articles with Full-text, or to articles in peer reviewed publications, or by publication date, title, etc..

• Whenever possible, use the database options to Print or E-Mail.
• Printing: At a full record display for a Full Text document, click on Print on the top Thompson * Gale navigation bar, then click OK to print a formatted copy.
• PDF Pages: Use this to retrieve and print an image of the original in Portable Document Format (PDF). Click on the PDF page(s) link (under the citation information) to download an image of the item to your system. To print, click on the printer icon just above the document.
• Email: Enter your full email address, select the record format that you want to mail, and click on Submit Email request.
• Download: To save records or full-text articles from your search, click on Download located on the top Thompson * Gale navigation bar.

URL: http://www.lib.wsc.ma.edu/iac-exac/infotrac.htm
Maintained by Corinne Ebbs / Last updated Sept. 8, 2005