Speech-Language Pathology Assistant

Locating journals for the "abstract" assignment:

1) Start on the Grossmont College Library web page. 
2) Select "Databases" from the left-edge menu. 
3) Select "Databas Search" and, when a new screen appears, take a careful look around.  There are several options available. 
It is ready to do a "Basic Search" by default (automatically), but it is waiting for you to select which of Grossmont's subscription databases you want it to search.
It will also let you switch to "Advanced Search"--so be sure to explore that when you have time.
4) Scroll down through the list of databases and their descriptive notes.  If you see one you'd like to search, click your cursor in the little "check-box" to place a check mark there.  At the top, there is also a "Select All" option. Selecting the "Search by subject" link will give a display of broad subject areas.  For your SLPA class, for example, you might put checkmarks by Communication, Health, and Medicine.

5) Place your cursor in the text-entry box (just to the left of the Search button) and click when it changes from an arrow to an I-beam.  Now what you type on your keyboard will be entered in that space.

Database Search is a "metasearch" engine but it only looks in the TITLES of articles, so--once you see which databases had the most "hits" for your topic--it is best to go directly to that database and continue your search with the software specifically designed for it.  To do that, you select "Database List" from the "Databases" link in the left-edge menu on the library home page and click on the one you want to use.

Each database has its own way of organizing and labeling the items it has gathered so that searchers like you can locate ones that are good for your information need.  The best way to learn how to use them is to USE THEM and read any "Help" or "Search Tips" information they make available. For your "abstract" assignment, a good choice would be the EBSCO database: Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition.

When you use these databases from the Library (or, actually from any computer on campus), the vendors recognize (by checking the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using) that an official subscriber is asking to open a channel of communication.  When we paid these companies for the privilege of  connecting to their products, we also sent them a list of all the IP addresses of the computers on the Grossmont campus.  The "electronic handshake" out in cyberspace will confirm that it is OK for the vendor to open its search software for that user.

However, when you want to use these powerful tools to do research from somewhere that is OFF CAMPUS, you must convince the companies that you are currently registered as a student at Grossmont so that they will let you use their products from wherever you are--maybe your uncle's den, a friend's garage, or a public library with computers connected to the Internet.

You will need to know your user name and password to access our subscription databases from OFF CAMPUS.  Fortunately, they are the exact SAME user name and password used for campus email.

Some databases will let you specifically select the more scholarly journals.  Editors of professional journals will often have the manuscript from a potential author distributed among other people in the same (or related) field of study.  These "reviewers" offer suggestions about how to improve the article so the author can incorporate some of them into a new draft which is submitted to the editor again.  Articles going through this extra screening procedure are often called "refereed" or "peer-reviewed."

Useful Web Sites

Visit Grossmont's Speech-Language Pathology Assistant department web site.

Selected Library of Congress Subject Headings :

For the subject SPEECH PATHOLOGY, search  under

Reference Materials:    (Located in the Grossmont Library)

Last updated on 12/08/06 by Michelle Blackman