Using MIRLYN in Introduction to Organizational Psychology

1. MIRLYN is the name of the University of Michigan's on-line library catalog. It can be accessed from dedicated terminals in the graduate or undergraduate libraries, from the campus computing sites using Macintosh or Windows computers, and from your own computer via a modem connection. Information about connecting to MIRLYN will be provided during the second section meeting.

2. Figure 1 shows the first MIRLYN screen which gives you the option of searching "MCAT" or "Indexes." To search for journal articles select Indexes and then select a specific database.

3. Figure 2 shows the list of specific databases available under Indexes. For example, since you are interested in the index for psychology articles you would select the database called "PSYC." Because PSYC requires a special sign-on authorization, you should be prepared to enter your social security number and your last name to verify that you are allowed to use PSYC. Figure 2

4. Figure 3 shows that once you have selected PSYC you have the option to search by author, title, subject, or keyword. In this exercise you will be most interested in searching by keyword, since you have already generated a list of key words.

5. To search by keyword, you type "k="followed by single key words or combinations of key words. Simple key word searches will give you too many books or journals. For example, Figure 4 shows that the search "k=job satisfaction" turned up 7,764 articles -- too many for you to evaluate.

6. To narrow searches you can combine key words. For instance, Figure 5 shows that the following search "k=job satisfaction and banks" turned up a more manageable list of 16 articles. That is, by using the connecting phrase and you asked MIRLYN to produce a list of only those references that contained both the words "job satisfaction" and the word "banks."

7. The results of each MIRLYN search will be displayed as a numbered list of books or articles. To see more details about each list entry, enter the number of the entry. In PSYC entering a list number will produce the publication data and a 100 word abstract for each article. Figure 6 shows the detailed listing for item 1 from Figure 5.

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