Mediated Searching
The Library offers mediated, fee-based searching of several
hundred online databases on all subjects, including many databases not
available to the public on our website. This means that
a librarian will search the databases for you whether you
choose to be present or not. If you choose not to be present,
your topic must be sufficiently refined with the librarian
ahead of time.
Fees for mediated searching include hourly connect rates, print
charges, and telecommunications fees. For faculty, all of the
fees are
charged back to the faculty member unless arrangements have been
made with the faculty member's department to supply funding.
In this case, an appropriate fund transfer form, available in
the Reference Department, must be given to the librarian
conducting the search.
Appointments are necessary for online
searches.
Online searches, in which we connect to databases through a
commercial vendor such as DIALOG/DataStar
(Knight-Ridder
Information, Inc.), are conducted by librarians. Stop by
the Reference Desk, or call 299-2305 or 299-2306 to talk with
one of the search specialists to determine whether a computer
search is appropriate for your needs. Search request forms
and more detailed database descriptions are available in the
Library's Reference
Department.
