Library Search is the easiest way to search the Library’s print and online resources from a single search box. It's a quick way to locate specific items or to find high quality resources on a topic.
Library Search covers nearly all our resources, but you may need to use databases to find comprehensive or specialised information in a subject area. For example, selected law resources, statistics, company information and very recent newspaper articles.
Unit reading lists can be accessed from My Unit Readings.
Quick Search
Use Library Search to find resources on a topic, or to quickly locate a resource you may already have details about. You can search for:
- keywords on a topic - for example quantum physics
- an article or book title - for example Participation without democracy. Containing conflict in Southeast Asia
- an author’s name - for example Garry Rodan
- a journal - for example The Journal of Australian political economy.
Click on a title in the results for more information. Online resources can be accessed through links in the ‘View Online’ section. Depending on the search, links for related databases, resources, subject definitions or suggested searches may be included. If you are off campus, be sure to log in via the top banner link to access more results.
My Library
Sign in to My Library to view complete search results, your current loans and library notifications, and perform simple library services such as renewing a book or cancelling a request. For more about managing loans and requests with My Library, see Borrowing from our libraries.
My Favourites allows you to save individual item records or entire searches, receive alerts, or personalise your search results. Access My Favourites by signing in to My Library and clicking the pin icon at the top of the Library Search page.
My Library allows you to personalise your search results by prioritising your chosen disciplines. This is particularly helpful for searches where results come from a variety of disciplines or include a large set of articles.
To personalise your results, create a new search and toggle the Personalise button. You will then be prompted to select up to five (5) disciplines from a standard discipline list.
Once set, there is also an option to preference newer material in the righthand menu.
Personalised search settings are retained during the single session for guests, can carry between sessions for signed in users, and can be turned on and off at any time via the toggle button.
Please note that personalisation does not act as a filter field; it simply adjusts search results to your personal disciplinary priorities.
You can save individual records by clicking the pin icon next to the item you want to save in the search results.
You can save multiple records within a search by selecting the check box that appears next to each item in the list and then clicking the My Favourites pin icon at the top of the search. Or you can save the entire page of records by selecting the check box that appears above the search list.
Labels allow you to group records in private lists. You may assign multiple labels to a saved record to include it in multiple lists. Labels can be allocated when initially adding records to My Favourites, or to already saved records within My Favourites.
To remove a label from a record simply locate the saved record in My Favourites, select the edit icon and delete the label.
To view records assigned to a label, go to the Saved Records tab in My Favourites and select the label from the list on the right.
You can export up to 200 records at a time to email, for printing, or citation managers such as EndNote.
Select records for export – either within your My Library Saved Records or from a fresh search – and click the menu icon to expand the record options. Select an export option and specify the necessary information to complete the export.
My Library allows you to save searches between sessions and receive email alerts when there is an update to the saved search query. The Saved Searches page allows you to view, delete, create an RSS feed and set/clear an alert.
To save a search, select the Save Query button at the top of the search results list.
Set an alert for the query by clicking the notification link that appears above the search box
My Library allows you to receive email alerts when there is an update to a saved search query. To set alerts on previously saved searches, refer to the record in your Saved Searches and select the alert bell icon.
To clear an alert, simply unselect the alert icon. If an alert is inactive for 90 days, it will automatically be removed. If you prefer to receive your search alerts via your browser RSS reader, locate the saved search and select the RSS icon.
When signed in, My Library will record your last 100 searches in the Search History tab. Delete queries from your Search History by selecting the trash icon on the record you wish to delete.
To delete Saved Searches, simply click the unpin icon next to the Saved Search you wish to remove.
Refine your search results
Use the ‘Refine your search results’ panel to improve your Library Search.
- Under ‘Availability’ choose 'Peer-reviewed Journals’.
- Under ‘Content Type’ choose ‘Articles’ and/or ‘Journals’.
- Under ‘Availability’ choose ‘Held by library’.
- Under ‘Content Type’ choose ‘Books’.
- Under ’Availability’ choose ‘Available online’.
- Under ‘Content Type’ choose ‘Books’ or ‘Book Chapters’.
See How to use ebooks for more help.
- Under ‘Content Type’ choose ‘Videos’.
- Under ‘Content Type’ choose ‘Newspaper Articles’.
- Under ‘Publication Date’ choose your date range.
Use the ‘Subject’ options to narrow by a particular subject or field.
For example, 'differentiation ' is a concept in both mathematics and marketing and will produce a different set of results.
Search Techniques
Use these search techniques to improve your results when searching.
| Technique | How it improves your results |
|---|---|
| AND | Using AND between two keywords will narrow your results to include both keywords. This should give you a smaller set of results. For example, hydroelectricity AND Australia will bring back results about hydroelectricity related to Australia. Library Search uses AND by default when you do a keyword search. |
| OR | Using OR between two keywords will broaden your results to include either keyword. Generally, this will give you a larger set of results. For example, hydroelectricity OR Australia will bring back results on hydroelectricity and results on Australia. |
| NOT | Using NOT between two keywords will narrow your results by excluding a keyword. Generally, this will give you a smaller set of results. For example, hydroelectricity NOT Australia will bring back results on hydroelectricity but exclude any results that include the word Australia. (Note: be careful you don't inadvertently exclude relevant results using this operator.) |
| asterisk (*) | Use the asterisk (*) wildcard to match zero or more characters within a word or at the end of a word. For example, results for adolescen* will include adolescence, adolescent, adolescents. |
| question mark (?) | Use the question mark (?) wildcard to match a single character. For example, results for wom?n will find both woman and women. |
| quotation marks ("") | Use quotation marks ("") to search for a phrase, for example “global warming”. |
Advanced Search and other features
Advanced Search is useful when you know the limits to set on results prior to a search. Searches can be filtered by material type, date or language when searching within specific fields. For example, by author, title, or subject.
| The search scope options limit the scope of your search by location. The default search scope ‘Everything’ includes all items across all locations and material types. You can change this via the drop-down box at the right of the search bar. This is a great way to search for items in a particular location, for example, the Veterinary or Mandurah libraries. |
