Introduction | Accessing | Searching | Search
Results | Managing Search
Results | Search Tips | Additional
Features
Introduction
ACM Digital Libary provides bibliographic information, abstracts,
and the full-text for articles published in all ACM journals, magazines and
proceedings. ACM Digital Library contains a special collection of reviews,
abstracts, full-text, and citations for varied topics in computer technology.
Also, this databases houses various types of documents such as surveys, computer
documentation, letters on programming, and conference proceedings. Full-text
retrieval is available for most articles since 1985, and for proceeding articles
published since 1991.
Accessing
Searching
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Once the advanced search screen displays:
- Type your search term(s) in the first Desired Results box.
- Select Name or Affiliation as necessary with radio button or
drop down menu.
- If desired check Title, Abstract, or Review.
- Click on Search to obtain a list of records.
Advanced screen in ACM Digital Library.
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Search Results
Search results will vary. If you get:
- No records matched your search, then check your spelling
or the fields you searched in.
- Too many, then go back and limit your search. Sometimes a
search needs to be modified with: additional search words, searching
only a specific field, adding date limitations, or type of materials.
- Too few, then go back and expand your search. Consider synonyms
for your search words or concepts. Try to use professional language
or terminology.
- Irrelevant results, then try new search terms. Consider synonyms
or related concepts. Identify and search using descriptors. Try a different
database.
Results lists
The Search Results screen displays items that matched your search terms. The
Search Results shows:
- citations for items that matched your search
- availability of full-text – indicated by the small icons to the
left of the article titles:
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indicates a full-text pdf article. |
Your search results will not indicate if a different database
contains the full-text of the article.
Search results in ACM Digital Library.
Records
To view a record in the available format:
- click on the icon next to the citation.
The information in the record, especially the title of the item and the abstract
(if available) will help you determine if you need the item.
For articles which are available in PDF format, Adobe Acrobat Reader software
must be installed on the computer to view the document. Acrobat Reader allows
the article to be viewed and printed exactly as it appeared in the original
publication. This is free software, but is unsupported by NSU. It can be downloaded
at http://www.adobe.com
View of an article in the .PDF format in ACM Digital Library.
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Managing Search Results
-
Databases typically allow you to manage your search results by
- marking or tagging records to select only the records that you want
from your search results from later printing, emailing and/or saving
- printing the search results list and/or specific records
- emailing the search results list and/or specific records to your
email address
- saving the search results list and/or specific records–some
databases may allow you to save your file for export into commercial bibliographic
citation manager software, such as EndNote or ProCite
Not all search management features are available in all databases.
Marking
Records in ACM Digital Library may not be marked for printing, emailing, or
saving at this time.
Search results cannot be marked within ACM Digital Library.
Printing
In order to print an article:
- Click on the .PDF icon
- The article will display in the PDF format
- From the Adobe menu bar choose the print button
Selecting to print the .PDF file from the Adobe Acrobat Reader software menu.
Emailing
This option is unavailable in ACM Digital Library.
Saving
In order to save an article:
- click on the .PDF icon
- the article will display in the PDF format
- from the Adobe menu bar choose the save button
- the computer dialog box will appear
- save in desired location
Selecting to save the .PDF file from the Adobe Acrobat Reader software menu.
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Search Tips
-
Use advanced search features to modify a search to obtain more successful search
results. You can combine advanced search features to modify and improve your
search. Advanced search features often include:
- phrase or proximity searching
- field searching
- date
- document and/or publication type
- Boolean operators
- plurals and truncation
One useful tip when searching any electronic database is to leave out articles,
prepositions, and very abstract or general terms–they confuse the database's
search engine.
For example, if the paper is on "The Impact of Mainstreaming Students
in Math Classes,” use the most precise terms like mainstreaming and mathematics
and skip impact, the, of, and in.
Phrase or proximity searching
In order to phrase search simply put the phrase in quotation marks.
ACM Digital Library, there are three ways to conduct a proximity search using
either paragraph, sentence, or near tags:
- humans <near> technology
- humans <paragraph> technology
- humans <sentence> technology
Field searching
Field Searches can be conducted easily in ACM Digital Library.
- from the Advanced Search screen scroll down until the below section is
visible.
- choose the desired field: Author, Editor, or Review.
Selecting the Authored field in ACM Digital Library.
Date
- in order to search by date scroll down the Advanced Search screen
- select either search by "Since:" or "Before:" under
the Published heading
"Since:" or "Before:" options in ACM
Digital Library.
- or select"Conference Date" under the Conference
Proceedings area.
Searching for Conference Dates in ACM Digital Library.
Publication type
- to search by Document Type scroll to the middle of the Advanced
Search screen
- under the Published heading Choose the As menu box
- select the desired option
Selecting "Any type of publication" from the drop down
menu box in ACM Digital Library.
Boolean operators
Use AND to narrow a search. AND looks for both terms in the
same record.
leadership and vision; mainstreaming and science
Use OR to broaden a search. OR looks for either term in the
same record.
mainstreaming or inclusion; elementary education or secondary education
Use NOT to eliminate records with a certain term.
Saturn not car; Venus not planet
Plurals
To find the plural form of a term it is necessary to type in the plural form
of the word.
ACM Digital Library will not automatically pull up the plural forms of a word.
Also, searches using truncations are not available in ACM Digital Library.
Additional Features
Wildcards
Within the ACM Digital Library Asterisks (*) substitute for a string
of characters
of any length. Question marks (?) substitute for a particular character.
- human*
- Fl??ss (in the case of looking for a last name of Fliess or Fleiss)
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