Can you find it?

Sometimes professors have students search for information that might not be as easy to find as the professor thinks. Case in point- an unnamed professor at another educational institution told his class to find an article he had written that was in an Ebsco database. The task was to write an APA citation for an article by the professor. The professor gave his name and the database. That should have been enough information. You know from the way I started that - no, this is not enough information.

One of the professor's students has a friend who is a librarian. The student had searched and figured they just weren't doing it correctly. They asked their friend the librarian. This librarian couldn't find an article in the noted database either. The librarian asked me. I also did not have any success searching in the particular Ebsco database for the professors name. I used initials, quotes, full name, last name only- and nothing came up. It could be Ebsco.

I did a Google search for the professor. This professor fortunately has an educational biographical web site. The professor happily lists their publications. Publish or perish being the mantra for many higher education institutions. I was able to note in which journals this professor had published.

...With the journal information
......I could search in the Ebsco database using publication search
........Ebsco offers a search this publication link
Victory! I found several articles. They aren't full text but they do give enough information that the student can complete the assignment.

I have no idea why the professor's name did not pull up articles in the Ebsco database. There are ways to work around a problem!


-kls