One customer asked me a few specific questions that led to a number of different resources and search strategies. The questions were: "I want to find the article regarding 'Sudden Infant Death Syndrome' in the Washington Post, and I also need to have consumer reports in March 2013 about a laptop, and I want to find peer reviewed articles regarding tobacco's health aspects."

For the first question, I went to the Washington Post Health & Science website and searched 'Sudden Infant Death Syndrome' as a keyword in the search box. I got too many results and most of them were the blog type articles. 

So, I searched by the same keyword in Newspaper Source Plus database, and I selected 'Article' in the Document Type and also typed 'The Washington Post' in the 'Publication' field at the database in order to limit the search results, then, I was able to find the right article in the Washington Post.

For the second question, I went to the Consumer Reports database, chose Vol. 78 Issue 3 - Mar2013 and clicked the advanced search function and then added 'laptop'  as a keyword in the search box, and I was able to find the article which the customer was looking for. 

For the last queston, I typed in 'Tobacco Health Aspects' in the Academic Search Complete database, and I selected 'Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals' to limit the results and came up with a list of scholarly articles about tobacco's health aspects.

Note that you do need a San Jose Library Card and PIN needed to access these databases. I think the customer left happy with the kind of targeted searching we can help you with!

See more Questions of the week!

Technology continues to evolve rapidly. Are you keeping up?

Computers, software, laptops, devices, internet cloud, and more...
We are here to help you learn!

Santa Teresa Branch offers a wide array of computer assistance.

• One -on-one Computer Help
  30 Minute sessions with very knowledgeable mentors.
  Wednesdays, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
  Advance registration required.
• Laptop Class      
  Bring in your laptop & learn to get the most out of your laptop!
  Wednesdays, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
  Advance registration required.
• Beginning Computer Class
  Various weekly topics in using a computer, software & the internet.
  Thursdays, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
  Registration encouraged.

Can’t make it to any of these classes? Check out this great online resource that offers basic tutorials over a wide array of topics: Goodwill Learning Foundation