Searching across two or more databases simultaneously is known as "federated searching" or "cross-searching." Several UMUC library vendors allow this type of searching, including:
Research Port allows for federated searching across databases produced by different vendors.
Note that because subject terms vary from database to database, you will be conducting a keyword search whenever you search more than one database at a time, so your search may retrieve some irrelevant results.
From any EBSCOhost database (Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete, etc.), click on the Choose Databases link next to the database name in the top left-hand corner of your screen. You'll then see a popup window with a list of all of the EBSCOhost databases that you can search at once. You may check the box next to the name of each database that you want to search across. Then click OK at the bottom left-hand corner of the popup window to return to the search page and to search across the databases that you selected.
From any ProQuest database (ABI/Inform Global, Dissertations & Theses, etc.), click on the Select multiple databases link next to the database name under the search boxes. You'll then be taken to a new page with a list of all of the ProQuest databases that you can search at once. You may check the box next to the name of each database that you want to search across. Then click Continue at the bottom of the page to return to the search page and to search across the databases that you selected.
Note that the historical New York Times (1851-2004) and historical Wall Street Journal (1889-1990) cannot be searched in combination with non-historical databases. (The current New York Times database covers 1980 through the present, and the current Wall Street Journal covers 1984 through the present.)
From any OCLC FirstSearch database (General Science Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, etc.), click on the Databases tab at the top left-hand corner of the screen. You'll then be taken to a new page with a list of all of the OCLC databases that you can search at once. You may check the box next to the name of up to 3 databases that you want to search across. Then click Select at the bottom of the page to return to the search page and to search across the databases that you selected.
From any CSA database (Criminology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection, PAIS International, etc.), click on the Specific Databases link under the search boxes. You'll then be taken to a new page with a list of all of the CSA databases that you can search at once. You may check the box next to the name of each database that you want to search across. Then click Continue to Search at the bottom of the page to return to the search page and to search across the databases that you selected.
To get to Research Port from the library's home page, click on the Research Databases link and then on the Research Port link.
Clicking on Research Port will take you to the Databases tab of Research Port. Click on the See all categories... link to see a list of all available subject categories.
Select a subject category. For this example, the Business and Marketing subject category was selected.
Each subject category is broken up into subcategories. The Business and Marketing subject category has five different subcategories. The number in parentheses after the subcategory name indicates the number of databases in that subcategory.
In order to search across multiple databases in a particular subcategory, click on Cross Search multiple databases.
The Cross Search page will tell how many of the databases in the subcategory are capable of being cross searched. First, select up to eight databases to search across. Click on the "i" button next to each database's name to get more information about the database. Next, enter your search terms in the blank boxes and select search fields and/or Boolean operators. Click on "search selected databases" to run your search.
Note that Research Port offers many fewer options for searching than do the native interfaces of the databases, so Research Port is useful for running only very basic searches. If you want to run a more advanced search, we recommend that you do so from the vendor's version of the database.
As Research Port searches the databases that you selected, the number of matching articles for each database will be shown in the "Hits" column.
Once Research Port has finished searching across the databases that you selected, you will be taken automatically to a page showing your search results. The number of articles found in the selected databases will be shown at the top left-hand corner of the page. Note that, in order to increase retrieval speed, in many cases only a small fraction of the number of search results will be retrieved. You may click on "increase number of results shown" to see more search results, but this may dramatically increase the load time of the search results page.
Note, too, that you may narrow your search results by topic (and then by subtopic), publication year, and/or journal title.
You may work with your search results in a variety of ways.
