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Chester Fritz Library Research How Tos

Provides information on library research

How does the Library Search work?

Image of 6 hexagons in a honeycomb shape. Each hexagon has one of the types of materials at the library: Articles, Journals, Magazines and Newspapers, Books, Government Documents, Dissertations and theses, Digitial Collections, and DVDs and Music. A note is included saying: "The main library search draws from UND holdings for your initial results, but it also allows you to expand beyond UND to locate other resources that can be requested through interlibrary loan."

Searching the Library

When should you use the library search?

  • When when you want to know what UND Libraries has (articles, books, DVDs, journals, and more)
  • When your topic is multidisciplinary
  • When you want to find different kinds of resources
  • When you want to find a specific source
  • When you want to limit to a specific collection (Children's/Dewey collection for example).
Looking for your textbook? Click here for more information!

Searching the Library

Everything - searches the library's print and online books, online journals, and online reference sources.

Articles - searches online journals, magazine and newspaper articles, reviews, and conference proceedings.
Books+ - searches all UND libraries' catalogs - books, videos, government documents, and journal titles in print.
Journal Titles - use this if you have the name of a journal and want to see if the library owns it online or in print.

Getting Started

Before searching for specific resources like books and articles, there is value in knowing how to broaden or narrow the searches. For more information on how to decide what kinds of sources you need for you research, please see our Research Papers guide where it talks about different types of sources.

When you enter words into a search bar, such as hockey sports UND hawks, you are telling it to search for items that contain ALL of those keywords.

  • The search bar uses an implied OR to combine all the terms: hockey OR sports OR UND OR hawks. That means it will return everything with your keywords, even if an article or source has nothing to do with UND athletics.
  • To help focus your search, use Boolean Operators (words you can use to connect your keywords). Be sure to enter the Boolean Operators in all capital letters or the search engine will treat them as additional key terms.
  • To narrow your search, use AND or NOT. This will limit your results to items that contain all of your keywords or to items that don't mention a certain keyword.
  • To expand your search, use OR. This will tell the search engine that you want results with either of your terms.

Maximize Features by Signing In!

Signing in using your UND credentials allows you to:

  • See and renew your loaned items 
  • Place holds to reserve items currently checked out
  • Place holds to request available items for easy pick-up
  • Save results and searches long term
  • Create email alerts or RSS feeds
  • Customize the number of results displayed
  • Create an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Request
  • Personalize your display language

 

How to sign in:

  • On a computer, click on "Sign in" at the top right corner of the library homepage, and then log in using your UND credentials. 
  • On a mobile device
    • Click on the triple line (hamburger icon)
    • Click on Logins
    • Click on Library Account

Newspaper Search

The Library Searches for Everything and Articles exclude results from the library newspaper databases. Instead you are prompted to re-execute the search using the same terms when you scroll to the bottom of the results screen:

Image shows a newspaper. Text says "These search results do not include newspapers. View results from our entire collection of newspapers, or search specifically within Featured newspapers."

Refine Your Search

 
Topic
Choose the topic(s) most relevant to your search or exclude unrelated topics
Author/Creator
Use this option if you are looking for results by a specific author.
Publication Date
Limit results by publication year to find both historical research and cutting-edge data.
Resource Type
Select the kinds of resources you want (like books or articles) or exclude those you don't want.
Collection
Narrow your results to holdings in a specific collection, like the Children's Collection, Special Collections, microfiche, or even online federal documents.
Database
Choose a specific database to view only sources and journals that are housed in that database and to take advantage of its customized tools.
Journal Title
View articles only from a specific journal.
Genre/Form
Limit results to biographies, DVDs, electronic books, and more.
Classification LCC
Limit results based on their subject classification in the Library of Congress system, which is organized by topic. 
Language
Choose which language(s) you'd like to limit your results to.
Library
Limit by library when you're only interested in the physical holdings of a specific UND library.

Additional Features

  • Email a Source:
    • Click the envelope button between the chain link icon and save (push pin) buttons.
    • If you're already signed in, your email address will appear automatically.
    • Add a note to remind you why the source is helpful.
    • Press send, and you're done!
  • Permalink
    • Click the first image of two chain links (next to the envelope icon)
    • A weblink will show up near the bottom, with a note of "copy the permalink to the clipboard." Copy this! 
    • You can share the link! 
  • Citation Managers
    • You would need to have your chosen citation manager open first. 
    • Instructions can be found at the Citation Manager guide.