ACM Digital Library

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

This database may be accessed from the Databases page of the Electronic Resources section of the NSU Alvin Sherman Library website.

For more on how to access databases visit http://www.nova.edu/library/dils/lessons/electroniclibrary/

Searching

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.

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:

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.

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.

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)