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Search EBSCO Discovery Service: Search Options

A guide to use and best practices for TWU's discovery tool.

Important Tips

  • EDS' default search treats all terms you enter in a search box as though they are joined with AND. For example if you enter television violence children, EDS will return results that contain all 3 terms. To combine your terms in other ways (such as OR or NOT) use the advanced search.
  • To improve relevancy of your search results, enclose phrases in "quotation marks." for example, "climate change" or "community college students."
  • Narrow your search by using the limits on the left hand side of the search results screen. You can narrow your search by date, subject, database, source type, language, etc. 
  • If there is an apostrophe in your search term, make sure you include it. For example, "handmaid's tale" not "handmaids tale."
  • To find variant endings for a word, use the (*)asterisk (truncation symbol). For example: psycol* finds psychology, psychological, psycologic, etc. 
  • To restrict your searches to books, periodicals or DVDs available in the CCC libraries' collection, check the tab titled "Books/DVDs" and then choose your campus.

The Basic Search Box

                               
Use the search box when you want to do a comprehensive search including books, articles and other materials. Fo fewer but more focused results set the drop-down to title from the default keyword.

 

Use search library catalog tab to find print books, videos, CDs and other media in our collection

 

Used ProQuest Tab to find more  available peer-reviewed Journal articles

Use the eJournal tab to find and identify journals to which the library subscribed.

 

 

Use Google scholar tab to grab citations, articles from ECAE library databases and more.

The Advanced Search Box

                                     

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The advanced search box, available to you on the Ebsco results page, allows you to manipulate searches in very specific ways to determine what search words to use, what category of words they are (e.g. title words, author words, words within the full text of results), and how those words operate in combination with one another.  Here are some examples:
 

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Use OR+alternatives

And= must appear in all results

The Power of Logging In

                                     


Many features of EDS search call for you to log in with your ECAE ID (saving to folder, accessing full text, etc.).  Do the initial search and then log in using the yellow bar at the top of the screen:

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Interpreting your Results

                                     


Your results will include books (print and e-books), journal articles, media, and other resources.  Here are some examples:

Print book:


(Note the location number - QC903 .M382 2014 - which will help you find it on the shelf.)
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Electronic Book (Note the icons for full text; clicking on the title of the item will lead to a full description):

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Book Review (A review will have the same title as a published book, but there will be a Review icon on the left.  Reviews often appear along with their related books when you search for a book title using the Search all resources). For finding reviews, search on "book title" AND review:

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Journal Article with PDF:

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Journal Article with Link to Full Text

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Journal article with Link to Interlibrary Loan (You will need to complete a form to obtain the article from another library):

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ERIC Document (See Full text from ERIC link; found by limiting to Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journals)