Bridge to TexShare for Small/Rural Libraries
Bridge to TexShare for Small/Rural Libraries
TexShare Databases | Subject Pathfinders | Search Tips | TexShare FAQ | Resources

A Guide to Providing Homework Help

It’s no secret that TexShare databases serve an extremely broad educational purpose, due in part because the databases chosen for TexShare are meant to cover as many areas of information as possible. This pathfinder is meant to address some special information needs one might encounter, and how best to get patrons started down the right path.

EXAMPLES

I am taking calculus, and I am totally lost, and the professor is no help. Is there something online that can help me? I’d rather not check out a 50-pound calculus textbook.

NetLibrary is an online collection of digitized books, made available from volumes held at your local library. It is an effective way for patrons to access your volumes from any computer and even from the comfort of your own home. Full-text books and their table of contents are provided in an HTML or PDF format, guaranteeing access for anyone with a web browser.

In the case of the patron wanting books to assist him with calculus, NetLibrary would be the best solution among the available TexShare resources. Other databases such as Academic Search Premier focus on providing research articles from academic journals, and would not be helpful for the student looking for a basic math text. The following keywords may be useful in NetLibrary:

I’ve heard I can get nearly any newspaper article online now. Where do I find those?

TexShare carries several databases that each contains articles from thousands of newspapers, magazines, and other journals. These are:

Patrons may search these databases according to the title or author of a piece, or also date of publication or the name of the publication. However, none of these databases contains information before 1985; Academic and Business Search Premier reach back only to 1990, and InfoTrac begins coverage in 1985.

Where can I find information about E.E. Cummings? I want a bio and some poems.

Patrons researching literary authors have several resources at their disposal through TexShare, especially if researching poets. Two databases, 20th Century American Poetry and 20th Century English Poetry, contain searchable texts from the work of over 500 poets. Patrons can find more detailed scholarship on both prose and poetry authors in the Literature Resource Center. The LRC’s entry for E.E. Cummings includes links to biographies of Cummings, academic criticism of his works, links to bibliographies of his works, and other online resources.

I am writing a paper about the history of Fort Worth and I want to insert some historical images or maps to illustrate some points. What is there online that could help me?

Texas Digital Sanborn Maps is a database of maps originally created, according to its homepage, to “assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property.” Some images of Fort Worth available on this database provide interesting snapshots of the city as it grew in the mid-20th century.

I know I want an article from a magazine, and I know it was in an issue from 1999, but I’m not sure of the title of the article or which exact issue. Is there a way I can browse the issues online to find the article I want?

The EBSCO databases including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, as well as InfoTrac Newspapers allow patrons to limit searches according to the name of a publication, as well as limiting the time frame of a search. For example, one could search Academic Search Premier for issues of Harper’s magazine from 1999, yielding a list of all of the articles from Harper’s magazine from 1999.

This page was written by John Reid in Spring 2006.
INF 382S: Library Instruction and Information Literacy, taught by Dr. Loriene Roy
School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin

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