At the top of the page is the search box. Use this search box to type in search terms and click the magnifying glass icon to find relevant materials. If your library has enabled it, you can also click the microphone icon to use text-to-speech and dictate your search terms instead of typing them. For your search terms, you can use keywords related to your topic, author names, book titles, or any other relevant information.
If you are using a mobile device, finding the search scopes and filters mentioned on this page is slightly different than finding them on a PC.
Typing your search terms into the search bar will prompt you with a choice of search scope as seen in the screenshot below. However, to access the dropdown menu of search scopes, click the name of the scope above your search terms at the top of the search results page.
To access the Filters & Facets, tap the funnel icon above the list of search results on the right-hand side of the screen. Select the filters include or exclude, then tap "Apply Filters" at the bottom of the screen to see the results. On a mobile device, the red checkbox is always visible to the right of each filter. Tap this checkbox to exclude a search filter. Don't forget to tap "Apply Filters" to see the search results again!
As you type in your search terms, the search box will show a list of categories that you can choose to search within. These are referred to as “search scopes”. Using these scopes can help to narrow or broaden your search as you like.
You can also select a scope after you have submitted your search terms by clicking the dropdown menu on the right side of the search box. We’ve presented a quick breakdown of the most common scopes below, but if you aren’t sure, ask your librarian about which scope would be best suited to your searching!
Operators (AND, OR, NOT) help you refine your search. You can use them to build a more specific search query and therefore find more specific materials.
When you perform a search in the library catalog and get the brief results page, you'll see a List of Results that match your search criteria, with each result having an entry on the list. On one side of this page, you'll see Filters and Facets you can use to manipulate your search results.
Result Entry Breakdown (from top left to bottom, then top right of an entry):
Result Number/Checkbox: The number in the top left-hand corner of each result is also a checkbox. On mobile, tap the checkbox icon in the top right-hand corner to show the checkboxes and select results. Check one or more results to perform actions on multiple records at a time, like saving them to your favorites for later or sending them via email.
Resource type & icon: The type of resource, and a quick-reference icon for that type. Sometimes this icon is a thumbnail of the cover of the item instead. Examples of resource types are: book, newspaper article, DVD, and more.
Title: The main title of the resource.
Author or Creator: The entity responsible for the creation of the resource. This is usually a person, but it can be a company or a group of people as well.
Publication information: The name of the publisher and the date the resource was published.
Excerpt and Characteristics: The excerpt usually appears on article resource results, and it is usually part of the full-text of the resource that the catalog found your keywords in. Other characteristics can be seen below the excerpt that will tell you about the resource. For example, whether the resource is peer-reviewed or open access.
Availability: A quick glance at whether the resource is available to you at your library. If this text is green, the resource is available. If this text is grey, the resource may still be available - click on the result to check for more information!
Sharing Options: In the top right of each result, there are icons showing the ways you can share or save the result for later. These options vary by library, but the most common options are described below. Click the ellipses ("...") to see more options.
Citation Trail - Cited By: Click the red up arrow to see resources that have cited this result in a references section or bibliography.
Citation Trail - Citations: Click the red down arrow to see resources that this result cited in its own references section or bibliography.
Email: Click the envelope icon to send this result to an email address.
Permalink: Click the link icon to copy the permalink to your clipboard and paste it somewhere else. A permalink is a link that goes directly to this result.
Pin: Click the thumbtack icon to save the result to your favorites and come back to it later in the library catalog.
Citation: Click the quotation marks to generate a citation for this particular resource, selecting your preferred citation style. Always double-check your citations!
Print: Click the printer icon to generate a PDF with the result's information to either print out or save to your computer.
Filters and Facets: On the left side of the page, you’ll find a list of filters that allow you to refine your search. If you're on a mobile device, tap the funnel icon in the top right-hand corner to view the filters and facets. You'll also need to select "Apply Filters" at the bottom of the screen once you've selected the filters you'd like to use.
These filters can include resource type, publication date, availability, and more. Use these filters to include or exclude different items from your search. At the top of the filters and facets section, you can also change the sort order of the search results you see.
To navigate through these slides, click the arrows to the right or left, or click on one of the dots below these slides. You can also click and drag right or left to progress through the slides.
With the Location filter, you can narrow your search to a particular area of your library. These areas differ by institution, but some common locations are: General Collections (usually a main browsing area), Display (items that are not in their usual location, but part of a display in the library), Oversize (items too large to fit on a typical shelf), and Archives (historical documents preserved for research and reference purposes).
Using the Resource Type filters, you can narrow your search to a specific kind of material or publication. You can also exclude a resource type from your search. For example, if you are looking for an article, but are seeing too many newspaper articles or book reviews in your results, you can exclude those resource types using this filter. Click the red checkbox icon to the right of the filter you want to exclude. On PC, you'll need to mouse over the filter to see the red checkbox.
With the Subject filter, you can narrow your search to a certain topic. Some filters in the subject category are broad, such as "Biology", while others are specific. When using the subject filters, it is recommended to multi-select all relevant terms rather than choosing a single subject term to narrow your search. Different publishers and authors use different variations of the same terms to categorize the subject of their works. Selecting all the variants of a term can help include relevant materials that you may not see if you choose only one term at a time.
Many institutions have multiple libraries, such as a music library, a medical library, or a law library, as well as archives and special collections. Use the Library filter to narrow your search to materials in a specific library at your institution.
If you'd like to select multiple filters to apply at once, you can check the boxes to the left of each item. Applying filters in this way acts will return results that any of the filters apply to, rather than all of the filters, similar to a search query with "OR" between two keywords rather than "AND".
On PC, you'll need to mouse over the area before the boxes will appear.
You can also mouse over the right side of each item to exclude or include it. A blue checkbox icon on the right side means that filter will be included, while a red checkbox icon means that filter will be excluded.