Introduction
In Gale are several large databases in a variety of subject areas such as health, business, criminal justice, and literature. These databases are listed and described on the first Gale screen. To reach this screen, click on "Databases" on the library home  page, and then on "Gale."

Gale Database Menu

Here is the Gale Database Menu. Only the top of the list is shown here. There are 20 databases in two groups. The 12 databases in the top group are cross searchable. This means they can be searched all together as a group or they can be searched individually. The 8 in the bottom group can only be searched individually. For this chapter, we are only concerned with the top 12 databases.

Above the list of 12 databases there is a check box, labeled "Select All." Beside each database name there is a check box, labeled "Select." The first time you come to this database menu you will see all these boxes are checked. This is the PowerSearch and is the default search option. If you submit a search at this point, you will be searching all 12 databases at one time. This is the broadest search you can do, and is the recommended search strategy.

However, there are times when you may wish to narrow your search to one particular database. Perhaps you only want an article from a medical encyclopedia. Then, you might search the Gale Virtual Reference Library by itself. We will do that in the next chapter. For now, we will PowerSearch all databases together. With the "Select All" box checked, click on "Continue".

Subject Guide: Search Screen

We now come to a search screen. At the top of the screen you see the standard choice bar that is at the top of every screen.                       

On the second line you can choose how you want to search. You can do the Basic search, the Subject Guide search, the Publication search, or the Advanced search. Currently, the Subject Guide search is selected.              

The main search area has a yellow background. Just above it you see in bold print the names of the databases currently selected.

Below the search box are some options for limiting your search:

• documents with full text - a full article right on the screen, no abstracts or citations
• peer-reviewed publications - just journals, no magazines or newspapers
• documents with images - only articles with pictures
• publication date - if you just want the newest ones, or know an exact article that you are looking for
• publication title - to search for a particular magazine only, or if you know the exact article you are looking for

For now, we will search on parkinson without limiting the results.

Subject Guide: Search Terms Screen

Here are the subjects that match our search term, parkinson. We see subjects for Parkinson Cowan, Parkinson Disease, Parkinson Machinery and Manufacturing Corp, Parkinson Technologies, Parkinson Technologies Inc, Parkinson's Disease, and more. Under Parkinson's Disease it says see Parkinson Disease. This is what is known as a "see" reference. In every database each item has a unique record. In the book catalog, each book has a record. In Gale, each article has a record. In each record, the item will be given a minimum of one specific subject, sometimes more. In the book catalog, the books about Parkinson's Disease are all given the unique subject Parkinson's Disease. In Gale, the articles about Parkinson's Disease are all given the unique subject, "Parkinson Disease." This is a subtle but important difference. You will find that most writers do use "Parkinson's" rather than "Parkinson." However, through cross references a database is intelligent enough to recognize that both terms mean the same and no matter which term you enter; you will be taken to articles on your topic.

On the far right of the screen we see the number of results for each subject term. There are 5,235 results for the term Parkinson Disease.

We can choose to look at all 5,235 results in order by date, or we can narrow the search by using the Subdivisions option. Notice that this is only an option for a few of the subject terms on this page. Some subject terms do not have enough results to justify having subdivisions. We will look at subdivisions for the term Parkinson Disease.

Every article in the database is assigned a set of subject terms that identify its main topics. In addition, all the main pieces of information in an article are grouped into fields. There are fields for title, author, subject terms, and abstracts. With the Subject Guide search, we are looking only in the subject terms field. Later, when we do a Basic search, we will be searching more fields.

Subject Guide: Subdivisions Screen

We now come to the subdivisions screen. Again, rather than articles, we see subject subdivisions or categories. The subdivisions you see here are standard subdivisions that you might see no matter what your topic. For example, here you see the subdivision Care and Treatment. You will see this same subdivision if you look under the subject terms Cancer and Diabetes Mellitis. Notice that under Care and Treatment there are 1,252 results. This is much fewer than the original list of 5,235. We will view those results.

Subject Guide: Article Results Screen

Now we finally come to a list of articles! Above the article results we see 6 folder tabs.  All these tabs represent different types of sources. The Magazines tab is highlighted in yellow, meaning that it is currently selected.

On this screen we see a list of 20 articles out of a total of 363. You may be wondering what happened to our the original 1,252 articles found under care and treatment. The 1,252 results are divided up among the different source types. There are 577 more articles under the the Academic Journals tab, 18 more under the Reference tab, 292 more under the News tab, and 2 under the Multimedia tab. Together the results come to 1,252.

To see more articles, click on the blue arrow labeled "Next." This will take you to 20 more articles. From here, you can choose to see 20 more articles or go back to the previous 20.

Notice that the articles are arranged in order by date. The one at the top is the newest. Notice also that all the article titles are highlighted and underlined in blue. Next to the article title you see the author's name. Underneath, you see the title, date, and page number of the periodical that the article came from. After that you see the name of the database in italics.

There are three types of article results on this page:

• citation - a reference to an article, not full-text and not in MLA format
• abstract - a reference to an article, plus a summary, not full-text
• text - a full-text article right on the screen

Full Article View
We will now look at the first article titled, "Patch helps treat..." To choose the article, click on the article title, which is highlighted and underlined in blue. You can ignore the box labeled "Mark."

Here we have a full-text magazine article. To print this article you have three choices. You can print from the browser tool bar using the file menu or the the printer button, but this will give you a poor copy, with the edges cut off. Instead, go over to the Tools box on the right side of the article. In the Tools box you can choose to view the article in PDF format, Print Preview, E-mail, or Download.

Print Preview

Here is the article in Print Preview. When you first click, the article shows up on the screen formatted for printing. Please wait a few seconds for the print dialogue box to open. Once the dialogue box opens click on the printer button.

View PDF

Here is the article in PDF format. The PDF format shows you page images of the article as it originally looked in its hard copy source. To pull up PDF format, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer. The disadvantage of PDF printouts is that you will not be able to see the name of the database that the article came from. You need the database information when you cite the article. To print from here, click on the printer button located on the toolbar just above the article.

Basic Search Screen
The Subject Guide search is one way to search; the Basic search is another. These two search strategies are very different and give different results. Always try both search strategies, as you never know which will give you better results.

The Subject Guide search is different in that it provides a list of subject terms matching our search topic. After choosing a subject term, it then gives us the option to narrow the search to a subdivision such as Care and Treatment. With the Basic search we do not have the option to choose a subject term or to narrow to a subdivision. Instead, when we search, we immediately come to a list of articles.

Find the Basic search option at the top of the screen underneath the Gale PowerSearch logo and click Search.

When we do this, the words "Basic Search" appear in the yellow search area. Underneath the search box you have the choice of applying the search to words in subject terms, to keywords, or to the entire document. There are some subtle differences among these choices.

• Subject - When you search Subject, you search all the terms assigned to a document. Unlike the subject guide search we did earlier, we are not given a choice between terms.
• Keywords - When you search Keywords, you are searching all the fields of a document, including subject terms, article titles, and abstracts. This is the default search for this screen and the recommended search strategy.
• Entire Document - when you search the Entire Document, you are searching all the fields of the document, plus the entire text of the article. It is the broadest search you can do.

Health Technology Assignment
Here are two sample MLA citations for articles found using the Gale PowerSearch.

magazine

Nathan, Noble. "Clinical Focus: A Helping Hand with Parkinson's Disease." Pharmacy Today 17 Apr. 2007:6. Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Virginia Western Community Coll., Brown Lib., Roanoke. 24 May 2007 <http://find.galegroup.com>.

journal

Noble, Carolyn. "Understanding Parkinson's Disease." Nursing Standard 21.34 (2007) : 48+  General OneFile. Gale. Roanoke. 24 May 2007 <http://find.galegroup.com>.