NOTE: these directions were valid as of February 2, 1998. If the UCLA library changes the structure of their web site, you may have to make adaptations

If you have your own access to the Web via BruinOnline, you will want to commit this website to a bookmark, for easier reference. If you work on different machines each time, and do not want to memorize the closest UCLA-based URL, you can always follow these steps:

1. Go to http://www.ucla.edu
2. Click on Libraries, currently on the lower right part of the page
3. Scroll down to "Libraries & Archives" and select UCLA Library
4. Scroll down to "Library Collections & Resources" and select Melvyl System - , World Wide Web version.
5. You may wish to note that the UC web page location closest to the Melvyl System is http://www.melvyl.ucop.edu
6. Now, choose from an array of different information databases. You might wish to explore each of these at your leisure to see what they contain. ABI/Inform is business/economics oriented stuff, PsycINFO covers the Psychology literature, Newspaper Articles covers major newspapers, and so on...
7. Decide whether you want to search by title, author, or subject, or choose "power" for a search of everything.
8. You might want to take the time to explore the "Introduction" (accessed by clicking the appropriate heading in the left frame of the web page).
9. As you become familiar with Melvyl, and if you use the same computer all the time to access this resource, you may want to set your "Preferences" for interacting with Melvyl.
10. Note that you can mark and save citations, abstracts, and even full articles in some cases. They can be stored on disk, printed out, or mailed to your e-mail address for further processing.
11. If you need, at some point, to create an inventory of research and/or reportage concerning a particular policy problem or issue, Melvyl is a great place to start. Melvyl also allows you to save your citations in a format that is compatible with commercial referencing programs, such as Endnote, etc.