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Discover Library Search: Understanding and Refining your Results

Understanding your Library Search Results

Using Library Search is like searching Google, so start by simply entering a few keywords into the search box.
Refining your criteria when searching resources as illustrated below will help to return the most relevant results:

Library search

 

Refining your Results

Library Search looks through a huge database of resources so the number of results retrieved by a search is usually high. You can combat this by using the filter options under the left column 'REFINE YOUR SEARCH' (see illustration above).

Full text online - limits your search to material available online and with full text (journal articles, ebooks, etc.) Scholarly & Peer-Review - this option limits your search to scholarly academic journal articles, conference reports etc. It will remove books, popular magazines, trade publications, and newspapers from your search. Library Catalogue - this option limits your search to material from the library catalogue, primarily books and ebooks.

To select a filter simply select the header text and you will notice a 'green tick' appear'

Limiting your search by Content Type (e.g. books, journals, journal articles etc) allows you to look for the kind of publication that is most likely to contain the information you need. As a general rule, use books and ebooks for a broad overview at the beginning of your research, then look for journal articles that give you more detailed information and examples.

To select a filter simply select the header text and you will notice a 'green tick' appear'

Move the sliders to select only the results that were published in a given date range. You can also set the date manually using the date options below the slider.