OneSearch Help & Guidance

To Search:

• Select the Scope you want (more on that below)
• Click the magnifying glass icon after entering your terms
• Microphone: Alternative to typing. Click this to do speech-to-text searching and dictate your search terms instead of typing them.

What am I Searching? (Search Scopes)

As you type the search box will shows  a list of categories that you can choose to search within. These are called “search scopes” and will impact where you are looking. 

Here is a brief description of each scope. If you are uncertain, please ask your librarian!

• Everything: This is the broadest search scope. It includes the electronic and physical materials we have available. So our physical books as well as electronic resources we subscribe to.
• Otterbein Library Catalog: Using this scope will narrow your search to physical items on our shelves and any individual eresources that were processed by the instution.
• OhioLINK Search: This scope will covers 115 library catalogs of other colleges and universities across Ohio. Request at the record level and have available items delivered here or you may be able to get a limited amount available for digital borrowing.
• Articles: Look specifically for electronic articles from databases and resources we subscribe to or that are available through open access.
• Course Reserves: Look specifically for course material by professor name or course ID.
• Beyond Otterbein & OhioLINK Libraries: Use this to expand your search to see what else is available on a topic. Our Resource Sharing specialist can help you get items you may want from this search.

Searching outside the Scopes (Other Types of Search)

Highlighting 3 areas:

• Database Search: This will take you out of the OneSearch environment where you can look for specific databases. Searching within specific databases can sometimes provide better results.
• Citation Lookup: Have a resources listed in a bibliography you'd like to find? Use this search.
• Newspapers Search: Newspaper results don't always show up as well in regular searching. This will limit your search to the newspapers indexed in OneSearch. However, it is recommended you use a library newspaper database, such as Access World News or Nexis Uni.

When you first perform a search:

1. Make sure you login. This will let you personalize, save, and find more resources.
2. "Tweak your Results." Here you can further refine your search by date, type of resource, etc.
3. See information about individual records below:

Result Entry Breakdown:

1. Result Number/Checkbox: The number in the top left-hand corner of each result is also a checkbox. This will allow you to mark on mobile or export records. 

2. Resource type & icon: The type of resource, and a quick-reference icon for that type. Sometimes this icon is a thumbnail of the cover of the item instead. Examples of resource types are: book, article, film, and more.

3. Title: The main title of the resource.

4. Author or Creator: The entity responsible for the creation of the resource. This is usually a person, but it can be a company or a group of people as well.

5. Publication information: The name of the publisher and the date the resource was published. You'll find the publication name for articles.

6. Excerpt and Characteristics: The excerpt usually appears on article resource results, and it is usually part of the full-text of the resource. Other characteristics with icons tell you about the resource. For example, whether the resource is peer-reviewed or open access.

7. Availability: A quick glance at whether the resource is available to you at your library. If this text is green, the resource is available. If this text is grey, the resource may still be available - click on the result to check for more information!

8. Sharing Options: In the top right of each result, there are icons showing the ways you can share or save the result for later. These options vary by type of resource.

   1. Citation Trail - Cited By: Click the red up arrow to see resources that have cited this result in a references section or bibliography.

   2. Citation Trail - Citations: Click the red down arrow to see resources that this result cited in its own references section or bibliography.

   3. Zotero: If you want to save to your bibliography in Zotero. See the library guide on using Zotero to save your research.

   4. Permalink: Click the link icon to copy the permalink to your clipboard and paste it somewhere else. A permalink is a link that goes directly to this result.

   5. Pin: Click the thumbtack icon to save the result to your favorites and come back to it later in the library catalog.

   6. Three dots (Ellipses): Click on the three dots to get to the printer, citation, and other means of sharing or saving this record