You may attend all three of the classes in this series, or any combination. Classes are free, but you must sign up.

This short workshop will give you a general overview of NCBI and its resources. We will focus on primary and derivative databases, understanding the differences between the two, and giving the user an overview of all the databases in each group along with a synopsis of their primary use. NCBI naming conventions, with emphasis on refseq, will also be introduced. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of NCBI and which resources are most useful to their own research.

As an extension to the NCBI Introduction, this workshop focuses on the Entrez text based search engine, which provides a standard format for search within and between primary and derivative databases. Entrez Links, along with Entrez Tabs, which include Limits, Preview/Index, History, Clipboard, and Details, will be explored in depth. Both Entrez Tabs and Links are integrated into each database, so the search techniques demonstrated can be applied to any NCBI hosted database.

In this workshop, we will be applying our understanding of the NCBI databases and search techniques through real world examples. Participants will be logged on to Apple computers and will navigate the NCBI website independently, with assistance provided as needed. Participants are encouraged to bring their own research queries to work on, but standard examples will be provided for practice.