Four Reasons to Love LibrarySearch

Valentine’s Day is a distant memory but it is still #LibraryLoversMonth so today we’re feeling the love for LibrarySearch.

Here are four reasons why you should love LibrarySearch as much as we do (there are loads more but we’re keeping it brief!)

1. Remember the old days when if you wanted to search multiple databases you had to go into each one individually and carry out your searches?  We do!  LibrarySearch saves you precious time as it searches over 300 databases and collections at once from a simple search box.  It is searching good quality scholarly and content and also lets you apply peer-review filters etc. to ensure your results are suitable for use in academic coursework.  Much of the content that LibrarySearch is searching is not freely available on the web but can only be accessed via Library subscriptions.  Of course, there is still a need to search specialist databases individually but LibrarySearch is definitely the best place to start your research process.
2. Are you rubbish at remembering to check when your loans are due back and clicking that renew button?  No problem!  LibrarySearch will ‘automagically’ renew your loans with the clever auto-renewals function.  If you have a normal 28 day loan issued out to you, and nobody else has requested it (that is the important bit) – that item can auto-renew for up to 12 weeks.  You don’t have worry about renewing as we’ve taken care of it for you.  However, if your item is requested by another borrower, you’ll need to return it by the due date (you’ll get an email sent out with the details)  Remember, you can check your due dates by logging into My Account in LibrarySearch.
3. We recommend that you always sign in (top right) to LibrarySearch before you start searching.  Once you’re signed in you can utilise the cool personalised services that are available – these are designed to make finding and using items much easier. Saved Items allows you to save, organise and edit items from your search results. Just click the star icon next to an item in the results list to save it for later. LibrarySearch then highlights the icon and adds the item to your ‘basket’ in Saved Items and it will stay there until you move or delete it.  You can sort saved items into folders and export directly into RefWorks – you’ll never lose that amazing article you found at 3am ever again!  You can also save search terms (queries) for later so you can run the same search to see if any new items are available in your areas of interest.  You can also set up alerts so that LibrarySearch automatically runs these searches for you.  See the Personalised Services tab in the help section on the LibrarySearch homepage for full details.
4. You can easily follow citation trails in LibrarySearch to see lists of items cited by an article or Items citing an article and can click through to view these in Scopus or Web of Science.  Next to some article results you’ll see Citations and Cited by buttons (in red) on the right hand side of the results screen.  Clicking on these will show you lists of articles which have cited or have been cited by the original result.  Remember, we might not have online access to all articles listed here – if we don’t you will see the Request through inter-Library Loan option.  If you click on the Times Cited tab under a specific article, you can then link out to Scopus or Web of Science to view the citations there.  This is a great way to see the reach of a particular article or piece or research and allows you to target your reading around a certain topic.

Happy searching!  If you have any queries about using LibrarySearch, or any other Library resource, please get in touch as we’re happy to help!