U of A Library Search Guide

Once you've performed a search, you'll see a list of results. Take note of the following:

• Brief Record: Found on the search results page, each search result shows a brief overview; including title, author, and availability information. 

• Item Record: Click on the title of a result to see more detailed information, including subject headings, abstract (for articles), and description, etc. e.g. Full record for Microeconomics by David Besanko.

On the left side of your search results you'll see options to filter and sort your search results. 

• Filters: refine your results by availability, resource type (books, articles, etc.), publication date, subject, language, and more. 

  • e.g. Fungi AND Medicine (filtered to peer-reviewed articles) vs Fungi AND Medicine (filtered to books) 

• Excluding: Search results can also be excluded - hover over the filter you want to exclude and click the red crossed-out box that appears

  • e.g. Hamlet AND Grief (excluding physical items)

• Sorting: sort your results by relevance, date (newest or oldest), title, or author. 

  • e.g. "Generative AI" AND Ethics (sorted by Date-newest)

You can do a more comprehensive search when you toggle on the Search Beyond the Library option on the left side of your search results screen.

Why is this useful? First, you can find more articles, conference papers, and other materials that we may not directly subscribe to or own. Second, it helps you get a more complete overview of the available literature on your topic.

When you turn this option on, you are searching:

• Our collection of books, ebooks, journals, articles, DVDs, and other materials that the Library owns or subscribes to.
• A global index of over 5 billion scholarly publications. Results may include items that the Library does not have immediate access to.

When you find materials that say not available, this means that the item is not available through the Library's electronic subscriptions, nor is it available on our shelves. However, U of A students, faculty, staff and alumni may get access to these materials by requesting an Interlibrary Loan.

For help with Interlibrary Loans, Ask Us!

Search in Full Text allows you to extend your search by looking within the full text of available online items. 

When you toggle this option on from the search results page, you can search for keywords inside the actual content of resources, such as the full text of a journal article or an ebook. Why do this?

• More Results: By including the full text in your search, you may find more relevant results, especially if your keywords are mentioned within the content but not prominently in the title or abstract.
• Greater Discovery: It helps you uncover information that might be hidden within the text and not explicitly described in the item's basic record.

Note: Items with keywords found in the title or description are ranked higher than items where keywords only appear in the full text.