Searching for Sources
It is possible to find some good scholarly information by searching Google, but the best assortment of academic information at your disposal can be found through the campus library. The University of Winnipeg Library has a huge collection of books, journal articles, and other sources, on pretty much any topic imaginable. It’s important to get acquainted with this collection and the different methods of searching it.
On this page:
Basic Searching
The best way to learn about library research is to try searching. Try a basic keyword search in WorldCat Discovery to start, then slowly try the other search methods as you get more comfortable.
Places to Search
- WorldCat Discovery Search: This is the search box on the library homepage. It’s an excellent place to start. We’ll cover the basic features on this page.
- Journal Search: You can find specific journal titles in the library collection with this search. [More information]
- Library Databases: Our digital collections are available through services called databases. You can search each collection individually. [More information]
Search Results
By default, WorldCat Discovery will search across libraries worldwide, with a preference for items available here at the University of Winnipeg. If you wish to only search this library’s collections, you can specify your search scope using the limiters in the left column.
A large variety of formats are available through this search, so you may also want to narrow the scope of your search by checking the applicable limiters.
Books
The library carries both print and digital books. Our print books are sorted by the Library of Congress Classification, which organizes them into subject categories for easy browsing. You can see the location information in the brief record, or under Availability in the full item record.
Our ebooks don’t have a physical location, but are available though one of our digital collections. Click Access Online to open the ebook. You can view the item online, or in some cases, you can borrow a digital copy for a few days.
Journal Articles
Only a very small percentage of the library’s journals are still kept in print. The vast majority are available online through one of our subscription databases. Each of these databases covers a set of journals from particular publishers or about specific topics. WorldCat Discovery will also search some of these collections, although not all of them.
To access the full-text of an article, click Access Online or select one of the databases under Availability in the full item record.
Depending on the database, this will either open the item description with a PDF Full-text link, or the main page of the journal. If you only get the journal main page, you’ll need to navigate to the appropriate volume, issue, and page number.
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Searching for a Topic
Background Information
It’s often useful to get a good grasp on your topic before delving into your research. You can do this in a number of different ways, but the best is to find a good reference article, from an encyclopedia or dictionary, to give you the basic history, scope, and terminology, of your topic. Try searching for encyclopedia [subject area] to find out what reference works the library has. Then, look within that work to find an article relevant to your topic.
Topic Keyword Searching
Most of us are used to keyword searching from using tools like Google. It’s easy: enter the words you’d like to find, and Google does the rest. What many people don’t realize is that there are a few simple techniques to improve the results you get searching Google, or any other computer search system, including the library databases.
Tricks for Better Keyword Searching
Phrase Searching: placing quotation marks around phrases will search the exact phrase as opposed to each individual word. e.g. “pigeon behaviour”
Truncation: Use an asterisk to search for multiple endings of a term. e.g. psycholog*
AND: Narrow your search to include items that contain both/all terms. e.g. pigeons AND psycholog*
OR: Broaden your search to include synonyms or related concepts. e.g. pigeons OR doves
NOT: Narrow your search by eliminating items that contain certain unrelated terms. e.g pigeons NOT technology
Nesting: Join multiple searches together by nesting each within parentheses. e.g. (pigeons OR doves) AND (psycholog* OR behav*)
Searching for a Specific Source
There will be times when someone, whether a professor, another student, the media, or a related academic source, will recommend a certain book or article that’s useful to your research. Sometimes the recommendation will come as a full citation, with all the necessary publication information to help you find it. Other times, most often unfortunately, you will only have a bit of information to work with.
With a Citation/Reference
There are a few major citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.) and they all will generally include the same information about the source. Here’s are two examples of APA citations, one book and one journal article:
Ellis, D. B. (2006). Becoming a master student. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Soria, K. M., Fransen, J., & Nackerud, S. (2013). Library use and undergraduate student outcomes: New evidence for students' retention and academic success. Portal : Libraries and the Academy, 13(2), 147-164.
Having the full citation makes the task of tracking down the source easier. For a book, the simplest method is to do a title search for the item (eg. ti:…). If the book as a very common title, you can include the author search as well. For example, (ti:…) AND (au:…).
For a journal article, the surest way to find it is to use the library’s journal search. Type in the exact title of the journal and you’ll see a list of database collections that have it and which years are covered by full-text. Choose a suitable database and use the navigation to open the proper volume and issue. You can also often search within the journal for the title or other keywords.
Without a Complete Citation/Reference
If you don’t have the exact citation information, you’ll need to do a little investigative work. Popular magazines and websites will frequently mention only the researcher’s names, their affiliation with a college or university, or if you’re lucky, the title of the article or journal. You can use whatever information you have to search online for the complete citation information.
If you’re ever unable to find a specific source, feel free to contact the library for help.
Advanced Searching
Within Indexes
You can specify where in the item record you would like to search. Using the different search prefixes takes a little practice, but this can be a really effective way of limiting the scope of your search to what's most relevant. You can also combine different indexes for even more control. Try specifying the different elements of a sources in the following indexes.
Note: the examples provided are a bit random, but simply replace with your own search terms.
(su:[words in the subject]): each book in the collection is given at least one subject heading. This will tell you what the book is about, regardless of how it's written in the title or the summary.
(au:[author's name]): this is pretty self-explanatory. Use the author's last name; some authors only have first initials, not full names. You can search more than one author at a time.
(ti:[words in the title]): this is a nice narrow focus, finding only words that occur in the item's title.
(nu:[call number]): use this to narrow to small section of the library's print collection.
(kw:[words anywhere]): if you are combining different indexes, you'll need to specify if you want to search for some terms everywhere in the record.