​Articles

How to search, and which databases are best for you, will depend on your subject area. See Subject Guides for more information.​ ​

Library Search

An easy way to start is using LibrarySearch.

If you try a search and have not found what you are looking for:

• Take a little time to consider the keywords you have used. For example, searching on ‘dog’ gives you 617,815 search results. Searching on ‘canine’ gives you 182,376 very different search results. You will receive different results again if you think about ‘kennels’, ‘pups’, ‘Labradors’ etc. The only way to find what will work for you is to try a range of different words.

If you have too many results, try the search tips below:

• Tweak my results

In your search results, use the options on the right hand side under ‘Tweak my results’ options to limit by format, subject, publication date, author etc. If this makes your number of search results too small, click on the ‘x’ next to ‘Active filters’ at the top of your search results to remove them.

• Phrase searching

If you are searching for a particular phrase, enclosing it in quotation marks will search for the words in that particular order, giving you a smaller number of results. e.g. “Global warming”

• Advanced Search

Use the advanced search option to find a smaller number of results. You can use the drop down lists to only search within the title or the author name, or to limit your search to a particular publication date.

Using a specific database

For certain subjects, you may want to search within a specific database.

To find a database, go via LibrarySearch:

• Select ‘databases’ from above the search box.

• Click on the initial letter of the database you are interested in or enter the name in the search box.

• Click on the title of the database to start using that database.

 

Literature searching LibGuide

For more in-depth searching, see the Literature Reviewing​ LibGuide​.

 

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