Why should I use UDiscover for my search?
UDiscover is a great place to start your research. It is the library's main search interface. It searches across UD Libraries’ print and electronic collections. This includes millions of e-books, journal articles, proceedings, reviews, videos, and more.
Entering Your to Search
Simple search is the default for UDiscover. Enter your terms in the search box (as shown in the screenshot below). While entering your search, you will be provided with five search options (or "scopes") in the dropdown menu in the search box (as shown in the screenshot). The default is "UDiscover," but the other options might be better suited for your project. Review the descriptions below to inform your search.
Choose UDiscover if:
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You want to explore the broadest variety of sources held by UD
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You know only partial information, such as a title or author
Choose UD & OhioLINK Libraries if:
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You want book-length treatments of a topic
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You want to access physical books and other materials at UD and be able to request content from different OhioLINK member library collections
Choose Law Library Only if:
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You want to search the holdings of the University of Dayton Zimmerman Law Library
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You want to focus on legal research materials, including treatises, casebooks, and law-specific resources
Choose Marian, Archives & Special Collections if:
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You want to explore materials held in UD’s special collections, including Marian Library and University Archives
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You want to locate unique or rare materials, such as primary sources, manuscripts, and archival content
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You want to research topics related to UD’s institutional history and Catholic traditions
Choose Beyond My Library if:
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You want your search to include resources not currently held by UD or OhioLINK
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You want to discover a broader range of scholarly content from libraries worldwide, requestable for free via Interlibrary Loan
Advanced Search Options
Advanced search allows you to enter additional criteria. It can be reached by selecting the "Advanced Search" button pictured in the following screenshot.
Selecting this link opens a new window with additional search features, such as "Material Type", "Start Date", and "Language". In the following example, the filter for "Title" is selected to narrow the number of results to only include results with "urban stormwater" in the title.
The advanced search window also provides options for "AND" "OR" searching, as well as for search modifiers. Please view the following section for advice on how to use these features.
Using Search Operators
UDiscover uses the following operators and search modifiers:
| Boolean Operators | Search Modifiers |
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AND combines different ideas or concepts, narrowing the search. Example: fairy tales AND gender Results will contain both the words fairy tales and gender |
Phrase Searching allows adjacent words to be kept together. Example: “Snow White” Results will contain words Snow and White together as an exact phrase. |
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OR is used when adding synonyms, different spellings, similar concepts, etc., increasing the number of results Example: fairy tales OR folklore Results will contain one or more of the words fairy tales and folklore |
Truncation broadens search to include various word endings and spellings. Example: histor* Results will contain terms that begin with histor, e.g., history, histories, historical |
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NOT excludes terms to make the search more specific, reducing the number of results. Example: Snow White NOT film Results will not contain the word film |
Nesting utilizes parentheses to control the logical order in which words are interpreted by the system. Example: (fairy tales OR folklore) AND gender Results will include the word gender and either or both the words fairy tales and folklore |
