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Campbell Library

Library Search: Help

A guide to using the search tool Library Search.at Rowan University Libraries.

Searching Basics

What does Library Search do?

Library Search lets you use a single search box to search across all of the Rowan University Libraries' physical materials, as well as most of our online materials. Not everything that we have available online will show up in Library Search, however.

If you specifically need online resources on a subject, especially journal articles, consider using one of these options instead of Library Search:

 

Step 1: Choose what to search

The drop-down menu to the right of the Library Search box lets you choose what to use Library Search to search for. Select from one of these options:

  • Rowan University Libraries: Search all physical materials and most online materials owned by Rowan University Libraries. (NOTE: Newspaper articles are NOT included in the results of this search. To search for newspaper articles, use the Newspapers view.)
  • Course Reserves: Find materials that have been placed on reserve in the Libraries by Rowan University faculty.
  • UFindNJ: Search across the collections of multiple partnered libraries at New Jersey colleges and universities.

 

Step 2: Enter your search

When you have selected what to search, type in your search terms and click the magnifying glass button. For a more powerful search, try one of these strategies:

Searching strategies and examples
Strategy Example
Use AND, OR, NOT (all caps) to combine search concepts
  • marijuana AND legalization 
    Finds results that include both the word marijuana and the word legalization.
  • cars OR automobiles
    Finds results that include either the word cars or the word automobiles.
  • dolphins NOT football
    Finds results that include the word dolphins but not the word football.
Use quotation marks to search for phrases
  • “climate change”
    Finds the whole phrase climate change.
  • “cognitive behavioral therapy”
    Finds the whole phrase cognitive behavioral therapy.
Use wildcard operators (? and *) to search for word variations
  • wom?n
    Finds results with the words woman, women, womyn, etc.
  • combust*
    Finds results with the words combusts, combustible, combustion, etc.
Use parentheses to create complex queries using multiple operators
  • (television OR movies) AND (violence OR aggression) AND (children OR adolescents)
    Finds results that include either television or movies, and also either violence or aggression, and also either children or adolescents.

Adapted from Rutgers University Libraries' QuickSearch Help guide

 

Step 3: Refine your results

On your page of results, you will see a set of options for refining your results down the left side of the screen. These include:

  • Sort by: By default, your results are listed by their relevance to what you searched. You can use this option to sort your results instead by date, or alphabetically by title or author.
  • Limit to: Allows you to see only results that meet certain criteria. "Available online" shows only items that can be viewed online by the Rowan community, "open access" shows only items that are freely available online to anyone, "peer-reviewed journals" shows only journals owned by Rowan or freely available online that are peer-reviewed, and "held by library" shows only results that are physically available in Campbell Library or another library building.
  • Resource type: Limits results to only certain types of resources, like articles, books, dissertations, etc.
  • Subject: Shows the main subjects of materials that appear in your results, and allows you to only view materials on a particular subject.
  • Date: Limits results by the date they were published.

Other options for refining your results are also available as you scroll down the page.

 

Step 4: Access your results

 

Online materials

To view one of your results online:

  1. Click the green link that says Available Online below its title. This will pull up more information about the item.
  2. In the section marked "View Online," one or more links to view full text should appear under "Full text availability." Click any of these links to view the material.

 

Materials in the library

Materials that are physically in the library will have a message below their titles reading something like "Available at Campbell Library (Campbell Stacks 3rd - 4th Floors)" instead of Available Online.

This message indicates the library where the material is located (in this example, Campbell Library), where in the library the material is located (in this case, either the 3rd or 4th floor), and then is followed by a call number to help you find the material on the shelf. You will need all of this information to locate the item.

To see which call numbers and materials are available on which floors of Campbell Library, please consult the library floor maps.

 

Requesting materials

If an item is physically owned by the Libraries, but is not available at your campus library, you may request that it be delivered to your library. To request an item:

  1. Click the title of the item in your search results to view more information.
  2. In the section marked "Get It," you will see an option to Request. Click Request to open the request form.
  3. On the request form, enter the latest date you need the item by, if applicable, and any comments you may have. Your pickup location is set automatically to the appropriate library. When you are ready, click Send Request.
  4. You will be notified by your Rowan email when your item is ready to pick up from the library service desk.