Ovid Tutorial

1. Ovid Tutorial Created by Daneen Richardson

2. Access Ovid from this website with the following authorization and password. • http://gateway.ovid.com • Authorization: sonovid • Password: sonovid

3. Select both databases to search for your information needs.

4. Customize Display • Display Fields • I recommend changing the default from Citation +Abstract to Citation for printing. • Record Format • I recommend Ovid or Brief (Titles) Display • Page Size • The default is 10. I recommend changing to 100. • Click Continue

5. Advanced Search is the default option for searching. At this point you are allowed to limit using a number of choices, it is recommended to limit by: • Publication Date • Ovid Full Text Available • In some cases it is appropriate to limit to full text. Be careful though because you could be missing resources that are in our library or may contain the information that is exactly what you need. Enter your search term or terms. The term can be limited by keyword, author, title or journal. This is very useful when part of a citation is already known. Click Search

6. In the top box it displays the number of results for your first search. With 23013 results I would be looking at ways in which I could limit the search. Limit by publication year, add additional terms in which to combine with your topic or use the to limit by publication type or journal subsets.

7. Click in the box where the arrow is pointing to limit the search to only full text. • The search can be limited by Full Text at the beginning of the session. In many cases doing so limits the search to much.

8. In this case I would look at ways to narrow the search results to a more manageable number by limiting or combining Limiting can also occur through combining previous searchs. Please note that I did not use the search which limited the results to only full text. I find it easier to continue to limit than have zero results in the primary search.

9. Combine searches is a very efficient way to search. It allows for multiple groupings of results and lets you try new mixes without destroying the initial search I generally leave this as and otherwise why would you combine? Removing the duplicates is very useful especially in a large search. Many titles can be very similar that the ones that are the same might be missed other wise.

10. Mark all of the citations that fulfill your information needs. • Those that are not accessible in full text or in our library will need to be interlibrary loaned for you. This is a free service (as long as you do not need the article immediately). • By marking even those that you may have printed from the full text you will have a complete reference for each of the article that will assist you greatly in completing your reference page.

11. Results • Chose Selecting Results when printing it will only print those items that were marked. (This provides just the articles that will be helpful and saves paper.) • Fields • Chose Citation in most instances. If Citation and Abstract is selected it greatly magnifies the number of pages that will be printed. Reading the abstracts is useful in the selection process of appropriate materials but generally not needed to be printed. • Result Format • Chose Ovid, this format easily identifies the different components of the citation for referencing. • Actions • Display and Print Preview both show what and how the results will be printed. • E-mail allows for the entire search or the marked records to be emailed. • Save allows for the entire search or the marked records to be saved to a network drive, a disk, flash drive or the hard drive.

12. Additional Assistance? • If you need any additional assistance please contact a library staff member. • Michelle Quinones, Director of Library Services • Daneen Richardson, Reference Librarian • Lynette Murphy, Library Clerk • 647-5240 ext. 2343 or library@grahamhospital.org