IEEE Computer Society Digital Library Databases

Introduction

IEEE Computer Society Digital Library gives access to 20 IEEE Computer Society Digital Library Computer Society magazines and over 900 selected conference proceedings. This database Includes citations, abstracts, and full-text reproductions of select documents. Articles and proceedings from 1995 to present are accessible. A sample of the magazines covered includes titles such as Annals of the History of Computing, Computing in Science and Engineering, Computer Magazine, Design and Test of Computers, Intelligent Systems, IT Professional, etc.

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

Choose the Advanced Search mode, from the tabs at the top of the blue portion. (To choose one of the other search modes, move your mouse over the the tabs toward the top of the screen selecting Author, Proceedings, CS Store Search or Community search.)

Next use the radio buttons underneath the tabs, and choose one of the following ways to search:

Natural Language-type in a phrase or question as you might speak
Boolean-construct a search using AND, OR, or NOT
Exact Phrase-type in an exact phrase
Fuzzy Match-use when unsure of a spelling

To construct an Advanced Search in IEEE Computer Society Digital Library

type your search term(s) in the first Search for box
click on Search to obtain a list of records

Search screen in IEEE Computer Society 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 citation/abstract of the article.
		indicates a full-text html article.
		indicates an article in PDF format.

Your search results will not indicate if other databases contain the full-text of an article.

Search results IEEE Computer Society Digital Library.

Records

The information in the record, especially the title of the item and the summary, if available, will help you determine if you need the item.

To view the article of a record in a specific format:

click on the summary icon to read a brief paragraph about the article
click on the html icon to for a web-page style version of the article
click on the .pdf icon to for a .pdf version of the article

For articles 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 www.adobe.com.

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

The “marking” feature is not available within this database.

Printing

To print an article, after it is displayed:

to print .pdf files click on the Print Article button near the top of the Article Display within Adobe Acrobat Reader
to print html files choose the Print Button from your browser at the top of the screen.

Emailing

Emailing an article is not provided as an option in this database.

However, if you would like to email an article to yourself from this database it is possible to open in an additional browser window. Then open an email program of your choice. Compose a message to yourself. Copy and paste the text of the article into your email message. By sending it to yourself or saving the message as a draft, you will then have a copy in your inbox.

Use your complete email address and include an optional note about what you are sending in the comment box.

Saving

To save a record

click on the file menu in your browser's top left window
go to save as
select 3.5 in. floppy disk
name the file
click Save

Use a word processing program to open your file.

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 IEEE Computer Society Digital Library, there are two ways to search for an exact phrase

if the phrase contains more than two words, put the phrase in double quotes, such as:
“world wide web”
“English as a second language”

if the phrase contains two words, IEEE Computer Society Digital Library automatically searches
the words as a phrase, such as:
higher education
curriculum development

Field searching

Field searching is available for this database. To field search, from the Advanced Search screen:

use the Appearing in dropdown menu box that corresponds to the appropriate search box.
choose from Full Text to ISSN

Choosing a field in ACM Digital Library.

Date

To limit a search to specific years

go to the date range section of the Advanced Search screen
- select the desired years–and months, if needed–using the pull-down arrows

View of the date range section in the IEEE Advanced Search Screen.

Publication type

To specify a document type:

click on the tab at the top of the screen for Conference Proceedings, or CS Store

View of tabs at the top of the Advanced Search screen in IEEE.

visit the bottom of the Advanced Search screen and choose either Magazine selections or
Community selections

Selecting two Magazines and one Communities resource in IEEE 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

Plurals and truncation are replaced with the "Fuzzy Match" option from the main Advanced Search screen radio buttons.
Using the Fuzzy match returns results similar to your search. It is helpful if you are unsure of the spelling of your search item. As an example, entering "Gat" will return results closely matching those letters including, Bill Gates, gated, and so on.

View of the Use feature from the IEEE Advanced Search screen.