Australian Education Index
A Library ‘Essentials’ Guide
The Australian Education Index (AUEI) provides comprehensive coverage of Australian education
research and also covers literature on educational research, policy and practice from many other
countries. The database includes literature going back to 1977 and is updated monthly.
Accessing the database
Access the Library’s Home Page at: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/library. Click on Access to resources
and then E-Resources, on the left hand side of the screen. Enter your IT Services account username
and password and click on Log in, if required. Set the subject area to all subjects and the resource
type to all types of resources, then click on the Find resources button. Scroll down the list and click on
Australian Education Index (AEI). Two other education databases, the British Education Index and
ERIC, a major American database are available on the same server.
Basic search
. Alternatively, if you wish, you can
Select the Australian Education Index and then click on
select two, or all three education databases, and search them simultaneously. In the next screen three
search boxes will be displayed. By default the whole document (i.e. the whole Australian Education
Index entry) is searched but you can use the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to restrict
the search to the author field, or journal title field etc. By using more than one search box you can
perform more complex searches, e.g. for papers on a particular subject by a particular author, etc.
In the search box(es) type one or more terms. You can type a keyword, e.g. Outback, or a phrase, e.g.
distance learning. You can combine or exclude keywords by using the Boolean operators AND, OR
and NOT. They are listed in the drop-down box between each search line or you can enter them
manually.
AND finds articles containing both/all search terms (e.g. distance AND learning)
OR finds articles with either/any search terms (e.g. literacy OR reading)
NOT will exclude search terms (e.g. virus NOT computer)
The search engine combines the above operators (AND, OR and NOT) from left to right. Always use
brackets to make clear the order of your terms, e.g., (reading OR literacy) AND children will ensure
that all records mention children in connection with this activity. In the absence of brackets the AND
operator would be applied first and some of the records retrieved would discuss reading without
mentioning children.
Underneath the third search box there are other options for limiting searches. It is possible to restrict
the search to records added since a particular date or added during a specified time period. Another
way of limiting searches is by publication type, e.g. conference papers or teaching guides. When you
are ready to begin your search click on
.
Advanced search
You can switch from the Easy Search interface to the Advanced Search interface by clicking
near the top of the screen. The Advanced Search interface will allow you to enhance your search by
using features such as the Search history box.
Search tips
Use the truncation symbol $ to find different forms of the same word, e.g. child$ retrieves child,
children, childhood, etc. In order to avoid retrieving too many irrelevant results you can specify a limit
to the number of characters after the truncation symbol, e.g. child$3 would find child and children but
not childhood.
You might find it easier to choose appropriate terms if you can inspect a list of variations of particular
terms first. To do this you simply add a question mark to the term, or to the root of the term, you are
interested in, e.g. exam? then click on Search. You can then select a term from the list by clicking on it
and then click on Search again. If the term occurs in numerous contexts the list will be quite extensive.
In such cases, to get the next part of the list just click on the icon
.
Viewing your results
If the system finds matches for your search terms a list of results in the form of brief references will be
and
at the top and bottom of the page to move
displayed, 20 per page. Click on
through the list of results. Each reference will include a Link to abstract/database record which if you
to
click on it will give you a fuller record, including an abstract if one is available. Click on
return to the list of results. If, in addition to the Australian Education Index, you originally selected one
or more of the other databases you can remove any duplicate records using the icon
at the
top or near the bottom of the list. There are options to change the display and output format and the
way your results are sorted at the bottom of the results pages. To return to the search page at any
stage click on
at the top or bottom of the page.
Links to the full text
icon, if there is one.
To find links to the most likely sources of the full text click on the
If we have a subscription to the online version of a journal you should be able to get access. There will
also be a link to the catalogue so that you can check to see if the library takes the printed journal.
Saving, printing or e-mailing records
To the left of each record in the list of results there is a small box that you should tick by clicking it with
the mouse if you wish to mark the record for output. There is also a box at the top of the list for selecting
all the records should they all be relevant. When you have worked your way through the list of records
in order to save the records that you have
marking those that are of interest, you must click on
selected. You can then scroll down to the foot of the page where various options for displaying and
outputting the selected records are given. You can choose the fullness, format and order of the records
and whether to display, save, print or e-mail the list. If you choose the
option you will again be
offered a choice of formats and will be asked to input an e-mail address and to choose a title for the
message subject. You will also be asked which set of search results you want to send – if you are using
the Clipboard, make sure that it is selected, and not your last search.
Using the thesaurus
If you are searching in a single database you may like to use the Thesaurus mapping feature. Tick
the Thesaurus mapping check box located above the search boxes, enter your search term and click
. A ranked list of thesaurus terms will be displayed. By clicking on a term you can view all
broader terms in its thesaurus tree hierarchy. Click the + sign next to a term to view the next level of
narrower terms in its thesaurus hierarchy. Click one or more check-box(es) to the left of the term and
click Search to search the term(s). Next time you do a keyword search make sure that the thesaurus
mapping box does not have a tick in it.
Help
At the right of the black bar at the top of the screen there is a link to the Help page. The Help page has
generic instructions for searching all the databases produced by DataStar, not just the Australian
Education Index. To the right of each search box there is an
for information which, when you click
on it, brings up much more specific instructions, e.g. for the format for entering an author’s name if you
want to search for papers by a particular author.
Logging off
Click on logoff in the black bar at the top of the screen.
For more Essentials guides see: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/library/guides/essentials/
© University of Exeter. AA 06/09