Library Assist: Answers

There are various ways to use the LibrarySearch catalogue:

1. The default 'Simple search' box - can be used when you know the title of the item you want, or for a general topic search to see what is available

2. 'Advanced search' box - best for when you need to have more structure in your search, such as more than one element to your research topic

3. Searching by PMID or DOI - for when you have found details of an article somewhere else and want to check if the Library has access to the full text

Things to know before you search:

• If you are looking for a specific book or journal article type or copy and paste the title - and an author surname if you know one - into the search box and press search/enter. You do not need to include all details of the item or all author names; it often searches better with less information!

• If you are looking for any items on a particular subject/topic you first need to identify the keywords that you want to search for. Don't just paste in your assignment question. You can read more about this in the FAQ 'What keywords should I use when searching for resources'.

• If you are looking for a specific Journal Title, please read the FAQ 'How do I find Journals' instead.

1. The default 'Simple search' box - how to use it

• The LibrarySearch main page offers a Simple keyword search as the default option.

• The search box has the words 'Enter keywords to search for library resources' in it - just type in what you are looking for and press search/enter.

• The catalogue will look for any print and online items that match your words and show you some results. They could be books, journal articles, newspaper articles, Journal Titles, conference papers, etc. etc.

• Print items will have a physical Library location indicated so you can find them on the shelf in the Library, online items will have an 'Available online' link for you to click on. You can read more about how to access items in the linked FAQs below.

• If there are no results, it usually means the Library does not have what you searched for, but check your spelling / the item details just in case.

Is there a way to narrow down the results if I have too many to look at?

• The catalogue default is to 'Search everything' which will find all item formats. But before you press the search/enter button you can choose a type of resource to focus on if you want to, e.g. just print books, just eBooks or just articles.

OR

• If you already have some results on the page, look at the left-hand side for the list of the filtering options under the heading 'Refine your results'. These will quickly narrow down the results to a particular date range, format, resource type or subject area.

2. Advanced search box - If you prefer to search in a more structured way, click on the green 'Advanced Search' box:

• Change the 'Any field' drop-down box to make the catalogue look only in a specific section of a record rather than everywhere e.g. only in the title, or for a specific author surname

• Set combinations of keywords, using the AND, OR, and NOT boolean operators e.g. you may want to search for "Teenagers OR youths" to find either word, or "Hockey NOT ice" to exclude an element of your topic area

3. Searching by DOI or PMID - you can quickly check if the Library subscribes to a specific item by searching by its DOI or PMID reference.

• A DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to permanently identify an article or document and link to it on the web.
• A PMID, also known as the PubMed reference number, is a number assigned by the NIH National Library of Medicine to papers indexed in PubMed.

• Simply copy and paste the DOI or PMID into the 'Find a journal article by DOI or PMID' box on the main LibrarySearch catalogue page and you will be able to see if there is full text access or not. You can read more about this functionality on our webpage here.

If you need help with search tips, please contact the Library. Please note: we are not able to do your searching for you.