(InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP is a comprehensive online periodical database that is available through Skyline Library's contract with a publishing company called the Gale Group.)

1. To access the InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP database, click here (a new window will open, but this page will still be accessible by clicking on the tab for this page at the bottom of your screen).

1a. If you are accessing the InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP database from off campus, enter your Library Card Number from your PLAN library card (Peninsula Library System) in the entry box.

2. Once you're connected to InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP, you will be at the starting point for doing a basic "Keyword" search. This is the default method of searching and it is the most common search method to use when beginning to research a new topic.

Keyword searching can be done using only one word, such as multiculturalism; or a phrase, such as child abuse or global warming.
"Keyword" searching also allows you to do a search for topics that include more than one concept. To search for topics that include more than one concept, connecting words called logical operators are used. The most commonly used logical operator is the word AND. It allows you to connect two ideas related to your research topic into one search statement. For example: women AND homeless; or smoking AND health; or California AND immigration. For each of these search statements, the database would only retrieve records that contain both keywords.

Enter your search word or words in the search box and click the Search button.
If you want to limit your search to only those articles that include the full text in the database, click the "articles with text " check box in the lower portion of the Search screen (under "Limit the current search") before clicking the Search button.

Click here to see an example of a basic search.

3. If your search word(s) match the word(s) in the title, citation or abstract of any article, a list of those articles that have words matching your search words-- will then be displayed.
If your search word(s) do not match the word(s) in any article, you will be asked to try a new search.

4. The Citations List page for any search displays article citations, which include:
the article title, the author(s), the name and date of the periodical, the page number the article starts on and the number of pages and/or the number of words in the article.
Click here to see an example of the elements of a citation
The citations are listed chronologically with the most recent article first, 20 citations to a page.
Articles that include the full text in the database have either a "Text", "Text with graphics" or "n full pages PDF" link at the bottom of the citation. Citations that have either an "Abstract" (article summary) or "Citation" link do not include the full text of the article. If an article's full text is not included in the database, you will need to find out whether Skyline or another local library carries the periodical. If the citation includes the link: "Library holdings", you can click on this link to see whether the specific date of the periodical is available at Skyline Library.

5. To see the full record page (complete article information, including abstract and full text, if available) for any article, click on the title of the article.

6. To print the article, click on "Print" on the blue bar at the left of the article page.
To e-mail the article, click on "E-Mail or Retrieval" on the blue bar at the left of the article page.

7. To return to the Citations List page, click on "Citations" on the blue bar at the left of the article page.

8. When you find one article on your topic, click on "Links" on the blue bar at the left of the article page to view other subjects related to that article.
If any of the listed subjects is particularly relevant to your topic, click on that subject to list all other articles in the database that are on the same subject.

9. To do a new search, click on "Search" on the blue bar at the left of the article page

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