LibGuides: User Guide: Resources

Library Catalog is a search engine that is used to find the printed hard-copies of books, articles and magazines that are available in all the university library branches, including all collections in multiple subjects. You can access this search engine from the library homepage by clicking on Library Catalog.

How to search in Library Catalog?

On the Basic Search Screen, type the search term you want to find, click on Submit. If desired, select to restrict your results to a specific Title search, Author, Subject, LC Call# or ISBN/ISSN using the drop-down menu beside the search box. (Keyword is the default.)
You can also limit your search to view only the collection of the library that you are visiting or aim to visit.
The results of your research will display all the printed books, dissertations, periodicals or articles that are similar to the search term that you entered. Each resource has a little icon that represent it Under each result, you can know if this resource is available for circulation and from which library branch you can get it.
Click on the title of the result that you found it most relevant to your entry. You will be taken to another page that include more details about the selected resource, such as: Author, Imprint, Rating, Book Description and related subjects. Also, you will find information about the collection which is this book from (Standard or Reference) and in which libraries you can find it. Its status, barcode, and call number.
All you need is to note down the Call No. of the book according to library location that you are visiting and then you go to the shelves of the library – second floor and search for the shelve that has the starting letter of the Call #. You can ask for staff assistance whenever needed.

Collection Type	Location	Terms of use
Text-Books Collection	Ground Floor	You can borrow inside the library only and you should return it back to the circulation staff before you leave the library (University ID is required).
Reference Collection	First Floor	You can read it inside the library only, not permitted for circulation.
Standard Collection	Second Floor	You can borrow by using the self-check circulation machine. The machine will provide you with a receipt that shows how many items you have borrowed and when is their return date (University ID is required).

EBSCO Discovery Service is the basic searching engine used in UOS Libraries. It provides faculty members and students with an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of the university libraries’ information resources through a single search. EBSCO Discovery Service offers a vast array of customization options with regard to both the underlying collection of metadata as well as the front-end delivery of search results. All of this functionality is based upon the powerful EBSCOhost search experience familiar to researchers worldwide.
EDS You can access EDS from the library homepage by clicking on Search all resources

How to search EBSCO Discovery Service?

On the Basic Search Screen, enter your search terms in the Find field
If desired, select to restrict your results to a Title search or an Author search using the drop-down menu beside the Find field. (Keyword is the default.)

If you want to use any of the optional Limiters or Expanders, click the on Advanced Search from My Library box below the and select the preferred Search Options

You can use a specific search mode, such as "Find all of my search terms," or "SmartText Searching"; apply Limiters such as Full Text or Publication type; or use search options that expand your search, such as "Apply related words."

Click the Search button. The Result List displays

5. Click on the title to view the article details screen, or click the full-text link to view the complete article. Hover your cursor over the preview icon to view article details, or click the folder icon to save the article to your personal folder.

The Find field is displayed above the Result List. Your search terms, limiters, and expanders are retained.
To revise your search, you can apply the limiters under Refine Results. Click the Show More link to view all available limiters and expanders. You can limit or expand your search according to the publications date, source type, publisher, subject and other options.
If you click the Advanced Search link, you are taken to the Advanced Search Screen with your search terms carried forward.

How to Search for eBooks & eJournals

In the below search box, you can search for electronic books by Title or Identifier (ISSN/ISBN), and for electronic journals by DOI or PubMed ID. In Addition, you can find the requested resource by browsing the titles, which are ordered alphabetically, or by browsing by subject.

After searching for the specified title, results will be shown according to your filtration criteria

Under each result, you will get the link to the database provider of the book or journal, in which you will find the full text file for the resource.

Searching tips for Dissertations & Theses

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. It contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text.

To search for full-text dissertations, select Dissertations & Theses tab from the library homepage

There are two options for searching, the Basic Search where you enter a word or phrase. Click Search. Get results. And the Advanced Search, where you can use a search form customized with search field and search operator drop-downs.

Search for an exact phrase

Surround your words with quotation marks—“eternal love” or “life after death”—to force ProQuest to look for your words as a phrase only, rather than finding each word separately.

Limit your search

Select the Full text checkbox to find only documents that provide the complete full text, versus just a citation or abstract After you get the results in ProQuest, you can notice that for each result, there is an Abstract/Details, PDF Preview and Full text download. The results can be sorted according to their relevancy, most recent and oldest.

On the left of the page, you can limit the search using multiple limiters options such as publication date, Author, location and you can click the Show more link in the bottom to access additional limiters, such as Source type or Document type, as available for your selected databases (click Show less to hide these options). Following are descriptions of three limiters available for many databases.

Source type - restrict your search to documents from one or more source types—such as magazines, newspapers, or trade journals. The list of source types will vary depending on the databases you are currently searching.
Document type - restrict your search to one or more document types—such as articles, audio/video clips, or poems. The list of document types will vary depending on the databases you are currently searching.
Language - restrict your search to documents published in one or more languages—such as Arabic, German, or Sanskrit. The list of languages will vary depending on the databases you are currently searching

When you run a search, ProQuest returns a list of matching documents. Click any document in the list to open it in Document View. Documents can be available in one or more formats, such as Full text, or Abstract/Details

With a document displayed, you can:

Read citations and indexing information
Read available full text
With hit highlighting turned on, scan the document for occurrences of your search terms
View reference lists, shared references, or ‘Cited by’ information as available
For documents that provide 'Full text - PDF' format, click the button labeled Download PDF (even if the 'Full text - PDF' is open in the ProQuest window) to open the PDF in a new tab or window using the Acrobat Reader browser plug-in.
Important to know - If a document contains thumbnails of images originally printed with the document, you can tab to the image and then press Enter to display it full size.
For Illustration documents, view individually indexed visual data representations—such as figures, tables, and charts—along with the record of the ‘parent’ document in which they were published

What you can do with a document

Add it to your Selected items list
Export or save it to a citation manager, reporting tool or file
Save it to My Research
Generate a citation

Things you can do with your current search

The links for these tasks are available from the Save search/alert drop-down above your results.

Save Your Search

Click Save search to save the current search to My Research. Saving a search requires that you sign in to your My Research account. If you don’t have a My Research account, you’ll need to create one. After you save a search, you’ll be able to re-run it anytime you are in ProQuest. If you do not save a search to your My Research account, you won’t be able to access or re-run it if you exit your current session.

Create an alert

Click Create alert to define an automated email alert that lets you know when new documents that match your current search are available in ProQuest. Alert emails will include links to view the documents in ProQuest.

Create an RSS feed

An RSS feed for your current search will function much like an alert, letting you know when new documents become available in ProQuest. However, an RSS feed gives you more flexibility of access. Instead of only being delivered by email, you can integrate your RSS feed into an RSS reader or into a Web page

Login and Check Your Checked-Out Items

Students, staff and faculty can check their library account to know their circulation status and modify their searching process by using multiple options.

To access the library account, login using your own university ID and password option from the Library Catalog page in the right top. You will be directed to a new page which includes information about the books you have borrowed and you will be able to interact with library administration in case you want to submit any comments or purchase suggestions.

You can know what books are on your loan and the due date to return them by clicking on items currently checkout

Items Renewal

If you wish to renew your checked-out material(s)

Click on "Items Currently Checked Out" link to view the material(s) you have checked-out
Select the materials you want to renew by checking the boxes in the RENEW column and then click the Renew Selected button. If you want to renew everything, click the Renew ALL button
If you cannot renew items, a message will appear on the screen. If you are successful, a new due date will appear in the STATUS column. Always check the STATUS column for information on the success or failure of your renewal

There are many ways to search the library's catalog. Each of the help pages linked below will give you tips on searching for specific kinds of items

Save as Preferred Search

If you have a favorite author or subject for which you often search when using the catalog, you can save the search with the click of a button. This will prevent you from having to key in the search each time and let you place reserves on new materials quicker.

Click on the "Search Catalog" button.
Search for your favorite author, subject, title, etc. or create an advanced keyword search including limits to material type, language, publication year, etc.
When your results are displayed, click the button marked "Save as preferred search".
The next time that you log in to your Library Account, you can click the "Preferred Searches" button to see a list of your saved searches.
Click on the search link associated with any of the preferred search terms in the list to quickly execute your search.
You can be alerted of new materials added to the library collection which match your searches. Just check the "Mark for Email" box and be sure that your patron record information includes your current email address.

You can also create special lists for each subject, author or title and save the collection of books or articles that you want to the specified list.

The list will be displayed in the main page

You can also export your saved lists and send them by email to your friends or other persons.
Click on the List Name, then choose Export List button in the above options.