University home > Library > Library collections and … > Search tools and catalog… > Library Search help
Searching for a particular book?
Searching for books on a particular subject?
Searching for books by a particular author?
Trying to locate an individual journal article?
Trying to locate a particular journal?
Trying to search the literature?
Trying to find other library materials, such as an eBook, a thesis, or DVD?
Found too much, or too little, in your search?
If you find too much in your search, you could try adding further keywords to your search or try the Advanced Search or Browse Search options. If your original search was of Everything, you could also switch to using the UoB Collections tab - the search should run again automatically when you change tabs. Another approach is to use the Refine My Results and 'Show only' options to the left hand side of the search results which may allow you to refine by Material Type, Library, Publication Year, etc, and show only ‘Full Text Online’ and ‘Available in the Library’. Click on any of these to refine your search results.
If you do not find what you were looking for, make sure all words are spelled correctly, try different keywords, try more general keywords, try fewer keywords. Also, if you are looking for a book published before 1978, please check our Card Catalogue Online as well. If an essential book is not held by the Library or available online, you can make a book suggestion, or if we don't have a particular book or journal article in our libraries or online, you may be able to make an Inter-Library Loan (ILL) request for it.
This section describes how to use the Advanced Search option of Library Search, which is accessed using the Advanced Search link near the main search box. Please note that we still have some work to do to improve Advanced Search, so you may see improvements if you return to Advanced Search in the future.
Advanced Search allows you to fine tune your search beforehand, whereas with the standard search you will often want to refine your search results afterwards. As with the standard search, you can choose to search either Everything or 'UoB Collections' by using the tabs above the search box. See the top of this page for a description of these.
Trying to search the literature?
Browse Search is sometimes a useful alternative to keyword type searching, and is accessed using the Browse Search link near the main search box. Please note that Browse Search does not include the journal articles included in the Everything search. First select the list to browse using the drop down list, the options being:
The results of your Browse Search will display as a list arranged alphabetically/numerically, from which you can select names or titles of interest. Please note that we still have some work to do to improve Browse Search, so you may see improvements if you return to Browse Search in the future.
When your search results display, you will see various options below each result which may include Locations/Availability for print resources held in our libraries, or View Online for resources we have online access to. You can use these to access these in print or online. Other options may display as well and these are described below.
Refine My Results, 'Show only', Sorting, and paging through the search results
Accessing the full text of the items found in your search
When your search results display, you will see various options below each result which may include:
Using the information about the items in your search
The Previous Searches option in the top navigation will take you straight to the Queries section of My Library Account where you will be able to see and re-use ‘This session’s queries’. If you Sign in, you will also be able to use your ‘Saved queries & alerts’ from previous sessions.
To save searches for re-use in future sessions you need to be Signed in and you can then use the ‘Save query’ link at the bottom of the left hand navigation of the Search results page. A popup will display asking if you want the name the saved query or save the query together with an Alert. Activate alerts on your saved queries to have them run automatically at scheduled times to provide you with updated results from queries.
There is also a RSS feeds option above the 'Save Query' link on the Search results page to activate RSS feeds to receive updates for your favourite queries:
Why should you sign in?
When you sign into Library Search, you are able to do the following:
You can Sign in to Library Search by using the Sign in option in the top navigation bar. Alternatively, you will be prompted to sign-in to use 'My Library Account', make Inter-library loan requests, place a reservation for an item currently on loan, or make an advance booking for a SLC (Short Loan Collection) item. When you sign in to the Library Search, your name will appear on the left of the top navigation bar. To protect your interests, a sign in expires after 30 minutes of inactivity and will be signed-out, clearing any previous searches and search results.
Students and staff (including honorary staff) - choose UoB login and you should be taken to the Single Sign-On page where you can sign in using your UoB username and UoB password:
External users (including UOB graduates, former UOB staff, Sconul Access scheme for students and staff from other universities, individual memberships, etc) - sign in to Library Search using your Library Number and Library PIN in place of the UOB username and UOB password respectively:
Important: Remember to Sign-out of Library Search (by using the Sign out option in the top navigation) when you have finished to ensure that subsequent users cannot access your library details or make reservation, booking or inter-library loan requests in your name. This will also clear any previous searches and search results. When you are signed out of the Library Search, 'Guest' replaces your name on the left of the top navigation. Please note that you should close any open browser windows to fully sign out of Library Search; otherwise, the browser may remember your previous sign in and allow sign in to take place without entering your log in details again.
Personal settings
You can tailor the Library Search user interface so that it reflects the way you usually search. For example: you can specify the maximum numbers of search results per page and indicate your subject area so that results better reflect your interests. You can also reset your Library PIN. To set your preferences, click the Personal settings option on the left side of My Account.Note: To keep your settings for future sessions, you must sign in and save your preferences.
The e-Shelf allows you to save and organise items that you find during your Library Search session. If you are signed in, you can use e-Shelf to remember items you have searched for previously. Please note that if you do not Sign in to Library Search, anything you save to the e-Shelf will be lost as soon as your browser is closed.
To access e-Shelf, use the e-Shelf link at the top right of the page.
Saving items to the e-Shelf from your search results list:
Viewing items in the e-Shelf when you are not signed in:
Viewing items in the e-Shelf when you are signed in:
My Library Account allows you to look at information about you and your use of the library.
You will need to Sign-in using your UOB username and UOB password to use 'My Library Account'.
The following options are available within 'My Library Account':
Important: Remember to Sign-out of My Library Account when you have finished to ensure that subsequent users cannot access your library details or make reservation, booking or inter-library loan requests in your name.
The Research Reserve is located off-campus. It is home to 1/3 of the Library's printed collections. The material held there includes lesser-used books and journals, theses and archives, as well as journal runs that we hold for the nation as members of the UK Research Reserve. This is a prestigious national cooperative, designed to build and preserve a print archive of journals. The Research Reserve is not open for staff and students to visit, but you can request items using an online request form. If you find Research Reserve items when you search Library Search, they will include the wording Research Reserve - use request above together with a location e.g. (Store 313781 ). To request a Research Reserve item, use the 'Research Reserve Request' link in the navigation bar above the search box to open the request form in a new window or tab, and then fill in the details of the book or journal you wish to borrow from the Research Reserve - you can copy and paste these details from Library Search. You will be sent an email when the item is ready for you to collect.
The Inter-library loans option in the main navigation can be used to request material which is not available in our libraries or online, and will take you to our Inter-library loans website. You will need to sign-in using your UOB username and UOB password to make a request on this service, which is available to all academic members of staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students. Non-academic and retired members of staff should talk to the Inter-library loans staff or staff in their branch library before making requests.
Further details are given on the Inter-library loans service pages on the Library website:
Library Search downtime
Planned maintenance sometimes results in Library Search downtime - details are posted on the news section of our website.
When Library Search is unavailable, as an alternative you may search Copac. Copac brings together the catalogues of a growing number of major UK and Irish libraries, including the UK's national libraries, many university libraries, including Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge, and specialist research libraries such as the National Art Library (V&A Museum). Please note that when searching Copac for University of Bristol holdings:
Please note: if the Library website is down, you may be able to access Library Search here
Known issues
Yes, though it is especially important that you sign in to Library Search with your University username and password when working away from the University campus as this will give you access to the full-text of a large proportion of the Library's licenced electronic resources, including eJournals and eBooks. For further information, please see our advice on how to gain access to electronic resources from outside of the University.
The Details tab below each search result includes an Actions option which allows you to email, print, or save the citation to reference management software such as EndNote. Options include:
The Everything search in Library Search includes content from many publishers and databases, including Web of Science, but does not include everything published. See the Coverage of Library Search section above for details. Also the searching within Library Search is limited to fairly simple 'Google-like' searching, whereas many databases have sophisticated extra search capabilities. However, Library Search is likely to give you a good start to searching the literature of a subject, and if you do not need a comprehensive search it may provide enough material for you.
Yes, sometimes you may land on the publisher’s/Journal's home page rather than going directly to the full text you want. This may be because you are linking to an eJournal rather than to an article within it, or some publisher's websites are not set up for linking to individual articles. If this happens, just browse the volumes and issues on the journal site for the reference you need, or use the volume and page number search facility which is on many journal sites. Please let library staff know about specific titles or publishers that cause problems - see the Contact us section below.
Yes, see the Using your previous searches, queries, alerts, and RSS feeds section above.
Yes, on order items are on Library Search but please note that there is a time delay between a Subject Librarian ordering an item and it appearing on Library Search, as orders are passed to, and then entered on the system by, our book/serials ordering section. Once it is on Library Search:
Updated 23 March 2016 by the University Library
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