SEARCH HINT OF THE MONTH

February 2006

FACTS.com Database

National Black History Month

Did you know? Since 1926 the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has established the national theme for Black History Month. This year ASALH has chosen a theme that aims to explore the impact that Black fraternal, social, and civic organizations have had on the evolution of African American life and history.

In case you were wondering where you could explore similar interesting facts relating to Black History Month or, perhaps, biographical information about African-American firsts, look no further than FACTS.com! Here's an example of how it works.

• From the EBRP Library home page (URL: http://www.ebr.lib.la.us/), click Online Databases on the left navigation menu.
• Click Enter on the next screen.
• Look under Statewide Databases; scroll and click Facts.com.
• Let's assume that we want to gather the names of African-American "firsts".
• In the blank text box type "first African American" (place phrase in quotes).
• Notice the check box labeled Search Title Only; leave the box unchecked, as we are not looking for articles with these words in the title.
• For purposes of sorting search results, chose Relevance Rank*.
• Finally, under Available Databases, click the following check boxes:
• • World News Digest (1980 to present)
  • World News Digest (1940 to 1979)
  • Issues & Controversies
  • Today's Science
  • World Almanac Reference Databases
  • World Almanac Encyclopedia
• Click GO!
• This search has retrieved 70 documents that are displayed on 3 result pages.
• Advance to page 2 of your results and click on #26 to learn that American poet Rita Dove became the first African-American (as well as the youngest ever) poet laureate of the United States in 1993.

* Story Date is useful when timeliness is a factor; in which case, you could also specify a World News Digest database accordingly plus opt to set a date range.

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