Illumina —The Scholar's Search Tool

Earlier this year, one of York's key database providers, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, introduced a drastically re-designed search interface. The new interface, known as Illumina, provides enhanced functionality for York researchers in a variety of disciplines. One of the key features of Illumina is its ability to search multiple databases simultaneously — a popular trend known as “federated searching.”

Currently, Illumina provides a single point of access to over 20 databases and thousands of full-text journals. The Quick search mode is designed for quick and easy "Google-like" searches, while the Advanced search provides more sophisticated search options. Results can be sorted by database, type of publication (e.g. peer-reviewed journal, conference paper, books, etc.), relevance to search terms, or publication date.

Interdisciplinary researchers will benefit greatly from having a single point of access to a wealth of scholarly material. Your students will appreciate the ease of searching, and the ability to locate quality sources from multiple databases in a single search.

Databases and journal collections currently available through the Illumina platform include:

• ARTbibliographies Modern
• Communication Abstracts
• Criminal Justice Abstracts
• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
• Sociological Abstracts
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
• Sage full-text journal collection

Some indexes and abstracts added to the Illumina family are also described elsewhere in this newsletter.

Illumina's QuickBib Feature

QuickBib allows Illumina users to easily generate a bibliography of selected database records in some of the most popular bibliographic styles such as:

• AMA - American Medical Association
• APA - American Psychological Association
• Chicago (Author-Date System)
• MLA
• Turabian (Reference List)
• Uniform - Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals

After running a search and marking records, you can either choose to use your marked records or set a range of records to format for your QuickBib bibliography. Choose a document format and a bibliographic style for your records, click on 'Create' and your formatted bibliography is instantly generated in a new window.

And even more good news...

The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) has chosen Illumina as its search interface for its shared Scholar’s Portal content. This means that over the next few months, even more databases and e-journals will be searchable via the Illumina platform. Databases being considered for inclusion in Illumina include Web of Science, Historical Abstracts, and ABI Inform.

For more information about the Illumina search tool, contact Catherine Davidson , Associate University Librarian — Collections at cdavids@yorku.ca

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