The TBR Virtual Library provides access to several databases from the Thompson Gale Group, containing direct access to the full text of journal articles and some eBooks including subject specific  dictionaries and encyclopedias.  They feature a new, updated interface.  Databases  included are: Expanded Academic ASAP,  Health and Wellness Resource Center, Health Reference Center, General Reference Center Gold, Informe, Literature Resource Center, Kids InfoBits, Junior Edition, Student Edition and InfoTrac OneFile.  A new Interface enables searching many databases at one time, organizing results in tabs.  Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) databases are purchased by the State of Tennessee for use by all Tennesse citizens.  Get password information to use them from within your RODP course.

Searching TEL databases

Take a 10 minute animated tour of the Thomson Gale Power Search Interface. 

To start your search choose one of the following search methods from the top tab:

Basic Search - Use this search to find articles by keywords in titles, citations, abstracts and the full text of articles. The results
 list will be displayed in date order.
Subject Guide - Use this search to find articles about a topic
Relevance Search -  Use this search to find articles by keywords in titles, citations, and abstracts and to have the results list
displayed with the best or most relevant materials first.
Advanced Search - Use this search to take advantage of the INDEXES and to combine searches.

Basic Search Basic search provides an easy interface.  Use the Radio Buttons below the search box to choose between a subject, keyword or full text search.  Results of a Basic search are displayed with the most recent first. Results can be limited to full text documents, to peer reviewed publications, and to documents that contain images.

To perform a search, click in the entry box, enter your search word(s), and click on Search.

Subject Guide Search

Click on the entry box, enter one or more words, and click on Search.  If your term(s) are included in the list of subject headings, the resulting display will be a page from the "Subject Guide" listing all subjects in which the search words occur and the number of references for each.  To see a list of search results, click on the Subject term.  If no exact matches are found in the Subject Guide, a Keyword Search will be performed.

Advanced Search

Advanced Search allows a choice of indexes and operators.  To perform an Advanced Search, choose an Index from the drop-down menu, click on the entry box (after the index abbreviation), enter your search word(s) (using wildcards or search operators if desired), and click on Search.  Click on View in the History section at the bottom of the page to display search results.

Search Results

Citation List

The records which match your search criteria are displayed in brief form, either from newest to oldest or for relevance searches, starting with the most relevant.

The View line below each citation indicates how much information the full record contains.

Mark a record by clicking in the mark box.  Select the View Mark List link from the left frame of the screen to view your marked items so that you may print them, e-mail them, etc.

Select the Limit Search link in the left frame of the screen to narrow your results.

Full Record Display

A full record may be as little as an extended citation or it may also include an abstract or full text and graphics, depending on the database and the rights that have been negotiated.

Article Retrieval

What you can retrieve depends on what is available from the database. Icons below a citation note if results are: Abstract Only, Citation Only, or Full Text available in html,  Full Content indicates a pdf version of the article as it was originally published.

Click on the  button to display the information in full-page format (including graphics).  When the reformatting is complete, use the browser's print function.

Acrobat Reader uses PDF to display and print an image of the item as it appeared in print if full content is available or in a two-column format if full content is not available.

E-Mail delivery lets you send a record(s) to a valid e-mail address.  Only the information which is available for display can be e-mailed.  Full text can only be e-mailed if able to view.

Select the floppy disk icon to Download to a diskette. At the Download window, choose the HTML radio button to display the text in html; or select the Plain Text with bibliographic tags radio button to save to the C: drive, or A: drive or a flash memory stick.