How to Use this Search

The University Libraries search gathers results from several of our online resources so that when you search on keywords, you’ll find information from many library resources in addition to what’s available through public website content.

What’s included when you search? You’ll find results that present:

  • Journal articles
  • Books and Media
  • News and magazine articles
  • Our Website
  • Databases
  • Expert help from our Subject Experts and Librarians
  • Library Guides

Learn more about your search results on our Search Results Overview page. 

You can search from anywhere on our website - look for the search field on the upper right side of our website header, which appears on all pages of the site. If you want to perform a brand new search, you won’t need to return to the Libraries’ homepage to the Find box.

Search Tips

Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your search.

Choose good keywords

Break down your topic or question into a few main concepts as keywords.

  • Instead of:  How often do caregivers burn out when taking care of parents with dementia?
    Try the keywords:  caregivers burnout parent dementia
  • Instead of:  The effect of pine beetles on forest diversity
    Try the keywords:  pine beetle forest diversity

Try related words and synonyms, too. Sometimes, the person who wrote the article, book, or other material you’re looking for had the same idea but used slightly different words.

Think about other ways you might describe the same thing.

Search an exact title or phrase

  • Use quotation marks to search for an exact title or term. This gets you fewer but more specific results.
  • For example, a search for pine beetle without quotation marks gets you everything about pine beetles but also some things about pine and things about beetles. Searching for “pine beetle” will only get you results which use the words together.

Fine tune your search

Get even more specific results by putting each concept in parentheses with AND between them.

  • To search for the exact phrase “pine beetle” only when the exact phrase “forest diversity” is also used try: (“pine beetle”) AND (“forest diversity”)
  • Write one search to try a few related terms with parentheses and OR. For example, if you want results where caretaker burnout is related to a parent having dementia or Alzheimer’s, you can try:  (caretaker burnout parent dementia) OR (caretaker burnout parent Alzheimer’s)
  • Get rid of results with terms you don’t want to see by using NOT. Maybe you want to read about cloning but don’t want more books and articles which are only about cloning sheep. Try:  (cloning) NOT (sheep)