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Product Design

What is the Library Catalogue?

 The online library catalogue can be accessed both on and off campus and can be used to locate a variety of resources including books (print and online), journals, reports, online videos/tutorials, databases, exhibition catalogues, websites and more. 

  • Books and Book chapters - searches for print and online book titles and finds online access to individual book chapters
  • Articles and conference proceedings - searches for online journal articles and conference proceeding 
  • Journals - searches for print and online access to individual journal titles
  • Videos and LinkedIn Learning tutorials - LinkedIn Learning searches an online learning platform for high-quality video tutorials on a variety of subjects
  • Absolutely everything - this search will retrieve huge results as it will search and find information from all of the resource type groups

Find books via the Library Catalogue

Searching

To find a specific item: search by author surname and one or two keywords from the title:

Library catalogue search

 

To find all material on a topic: search using a few, relevant topic keywords:

Library catalogue search


Results

Browse results list and click on relevant titles (note that different editions or titles held in print and ebook format are grouped together under one top level link):

screenshot of a catalogue record showing book locations as an example

Find print books on the shelves by noting the floor location (e.g. 2C or 1A) and the shelf number (e.g. 771.6 BRI - always note the first three letters of the author surname).  Click through to view the number of copies available and sign in to view full details:

screenshot of a catalogue record shwing book and floor locations as an example

Access ebooks

Access ebooks by limiting the results to 'Online resources'.  Click on the ebook title you want to access to link through to it.  If you need to login (on or off campus) you will need your university email address and password.

 

All copies of a book out on loan? 

Sign in to the Catalogue and then click on the link to 'Request' a copy.  We will email you when the book is then back in the Library and put it aside for you to pick up.

Find ARTICLES via the Articles and conference proceedings search

Searching

Select the 'Articles' option in the drop-down menu by the search box.

To find a specific item: search by author surname and a few keywords from the article title.

To find all articles on a topic: search using a few, relevant topic keywords (you can adapt your search to add in more terms or use fewer/more general terms etc as needed depending on the results you get):

 

Library catalogue articles


Peer-reviewed

You can narrow your results list down to quality, peer reviewed articles by clicking on Peer-reviewed journals:

screenshot showing a search with refine settings  enabled


Access full text of articles

Access the full text by clicking on an article title - this will list all the providers we subscribe to who offer access to the article.  If you are off campus, note the OFF CAMPUS access instructions you need to follow:

    screenshot example of ebook access terms

Find Absolutely EVERYTHING!

Searching

Use the Absolutely everything option in the drop-down menu to search for books, videos, tutorials articles - everything! - in one go.  Though for some subject areas this could bring back a huge number of results!

Results

Use the options in the right hand menu of your results list to limit your results to books, journals etc if needed.

Save and Organise Results

screenshot visual of 'pin' and sign in area

Sign in to the Catalogue

You can save results you want keep hold of by SIGNING IN to the Catalogue and using the PIN icon to review pinned records.

 

Pin items you want to save

You can select records to PIN using the icons within your results list.

screenshot visual example of catalogue records 'pinned' 

Add labels to organise items

With your pinned list you can add labels to describe or categorise the results you've saved (useful if researching different topics).  You can then view lists of results by label.

visual example of viewing pinned list by label

Generate references for books and articles

You can use the citation button referencing citation button icon  within your list to start generating Harvard Solent references for books and journal articles only (remember to check and edit them to ensure they're correct).

Helpful video on searching Library Catalogue

 You may link here to the library catalogue, there is also a short video to show you how to use it.

Library Catalogue: test your knowledge?

Guided Learning Activity