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Isothermal Community College Library
Last updated 8-07

 Isothermal Community College
P.O. Box 804, Spindale NC 28160
(828) 286-4636  fax (828) 286-8208

For more information, contact Director of Information
Services & Technology Susan Vaughan
 Library Staff & Hours Interlibrary Loan
Nursing Research Page

Introduction to Searching NC LIVE

What is NC LIVE?
NC LIVE is an aggregate database (collection of multiple separate databases) made available for use by all residents of North Carolina through public and academic libraries across the state.  NC LIVE provides access to a very large amount of information recently or previously published in magazines, newspapers, encyclopedia and directories. Many articles are in full text (complete and entire) and can be read onscreen or printed out.  Black and white prints can be made from library computers for $.05 per page, and color prints for $.25 per page.

How do I get to NC LIVE?
NC LIVE can be accessed on any Internet-connected computer on the College campus, or in any North Carolina public library (including Rutherford County and Polk County libraries).  Current students and staff of the College are eligible for an NC LIVE off campus password which can be requested from the College Library (or the Library website).  NC LIVE is located at http://www.nclive.org.  At the College Library, links to NC LIVE appear on the browser bars on each computer, and the Library home page (http://www.isothermal.edu/library) contains a link to NC LIVE's home page, as well as shortcuts to its popular databases.

Summary of NC LIVE Webpage Options
This is a descriptive list of the selections available on the NC LIVE screen.  For more information on search techniques, scroll down to specific search options listed below.  At the NC LIVE home page (http://www.nclive.org), you can:

  • Browse (look around, explore) in lists of databases grouped by subject (Literature & Arts, Medical & Health, Legal, etc.) or by type (newspapers, magazines & journals, encyclopedias, etc.). 

  • Use the EZ Search to perform a broad general search through twelve (12) of NC LIVE's fifty-seven (57) databases.  (Not the best search method.)

  • Use Advanced Search (linked right underneath EZ Search, and on a tab at the top of the screen) for narrowing your search to get a smaller number of more specific "hits," and you can select any combination of all available NC LIVE databases to search in, including the CMC Library Consortium Catalog. (Limitation:  You need to already know a lot about the databases to pick appropriate ones for your search.) 

  • See a list of NC LIVE's nearly 100 separate information sources, by clicking on "Use our Alphabetic list." 

  • Look for a specific journal or magazine in full text by clicking on "Use our journal and magazine search feature."

Keep in mind that you can click on the name of any database or online resource that appears on any NC LIVE page and go there. 
Also, there are clickable tabs at the top of the NC LIVE screen:

Browse Resources contains another listing of NC LIVE resources grouped by subject and type, and has a link to "Find Full Text Publications."  Subtabs on this page include:

  • Alphabetic -- goes to the list of resources arranged alphabetically.  

  • Vendor -- goes to a list of all the vendors (companies) that have created the databases included in NC LIVE.  Clicking on a vendor's link will take you to the page where you can search all the vendor's databases simultaneously (a recommended search method, particularly using EBSCOhost.)

  • Not EZ Searchable -- has a list of many databases and online resources that are not included when you do an EZ Search. 

Advanced Search allows you to narrow your search to get a smaller number of more specific "hits," and select any combination of all available NC LIVE databases to search in, even including the CMC Library Consortium Catalog.  A link to this option is also located on the home page under the EZ Search option.  (Limitation:  You need to already know a lot about the databases to pick appropriate ones for your search.) 

Help has advice about who to contact if you need assistance, Frequently Asked Questions, and Help Guides & Tips for using the databases.

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Parts of the following introduction were acquired from the NC LIVE site (retrieved 05-20-03 at http://www.nclive.org:88/help.phtml?page=1; no longer available.)  Instructional Guided Tour "movies" are also available on the NC LIVE website to introduce you to various aspects of using NC LIVE:

How NC LIVE Works
You are probably already familiar with Internet search engines like Yahoo and Google, which allow you to type in subject words and then look for websites that include those words. NC LIVE is both similar and different. NC LIVE is made up of many different databases that will allow you to type in subject words. The difference is that instead of searching for websites, these resources will pull up articles from newspapers, magazines, or academic journals.

All NC LIVE resources can be searched independently by going directly to a selected database, or you can use EZ Search to search several major resources at once. Note that EZ Search does not search every resource on NC LIVE, only a few of the major ones. So if you don't find enough information using EZ Search, click on the "Browse Resources" and then "Vendors" tabs and choose one of our other databases to search directly.

Using EZ Search
EZ Search allows you to search twelve of our databases at once. To use EZ Search, simply type in your keywords and click on the "search" button.

Searching "Non-EZ" Resources
If you are not using EZ Search, you will need to enter an individual database to be able to perform a search. The databases not searched by EZ Search are organized into a separate section of the Browse Resources page. Click on the "Browse Resources" tab for links to each database. Databases are organized in several lists, as you will see along the lower navigation bar. You may use the Subject list to see databases arranged according to the subjects they cover. The Type list has the databases arranged according to the type of materials they include (newspapers, maps, kids' stuff, etc.). The Alphabetic list arranges each database alphabetically by name. The Vendor list allows you to see all resources provided by each vendor. If you are unsure where to go from here, choose the Subject list and click on one of the databases included in the subject you are researching.  Clicking on the database name from any list will take you directly into that resource so you can search it.

What Full Text Means & Why It Matters
Many of the databases have the icon “FT” after them. This means that those databases include the full text of articles from magazines, newspapers, or academic journals. All databases index articles, which means they will let you type in subject words and will bring up a list of articles about those subject words. It is then up to you to go to your library and find the old magazines or newspapers so you can read the articles. However, full-text databases are the researcher's best friend, as they not only provide a list of articles, but also include the complete article, so you can read it right on your computer or print it out. If you have access to the Internet at home, you can use full-text databases to do a lot of your research right from home, any time of the day or night.

(To access NC LIVE from off campus, you will need a password. You can apply for a password at the library Circulation Desk, or via the library website at http://www.isothermal.edu/library.)

Whenever there is a full-text database for your particular subject, you will want to search it first, as it will be the most convenient way to find information. If you do not get enough information from a full-text database, then try searching one of the other databases, and ask a librarian for assistance in locating the full text of the articles you find.

Finding a Specific Publication
Sometimes you aren't trying to search for articles from just any old publication. Sometimes you need an article from one particular magazine, newspaper, or journal. In that case, the first step is to find a database that includes the full text of that publication. To do this, click on the "Search" tab and select the "Find Full-Text Publications" tab underneath. A search box will then appear. Type in important words from the name of the publication, joining them with "AND" and click the "search" button. For example, search: "world AND news" (without the quotation marks) to find out if NC LIVE has full text coverage of U.S. News & World Report. A results page will appear that has links to the databases that have some full text of the publication. Clicking on the hyperlinked name will take you straight to the database. More information on the publication search feature is available here.

Searching Resources by Type
Sometimes you will need information in a particular format or from a particular kind of source. For example, you may have a homework assignment to find newspaper articles about this year's stock market performance. In that case, you would want to search only newspapers without having a lot of magazine or journal articles as part of your search results. To search for material in a particular format, click on "Browse Resources". The page that appears will have a list of subjects and a list of types. Clicking on a "Type" from the list will give you a set of databases or links to just that particular kind of information source.

Searching Resources by Vendor
Several different companies (vendors) produce the databases that are included in NC LIVE. Some people know the name of the company that made the database they want to access, and they like to go into the database using the vendor's name. In addition, some of the companies will let you search all or many of their databases at once. (For example, you can search MasterFile Premier and Academic Search Elite at the same time, since they are both made by the EBSCO company.) This is not like the EZ Search, which searches databases from different vendors.

To search for a database by the name of the vendor that produces it, click on the "Browse Resources" tab, and then choose "Vendor" from the lower tab bar. Then simply click on the name of the vendor whose products you wish to search.
 

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