Skimming through the results page to identify relevant items requires you to know how the information is displayed in the results. Use this information to check an item's availability, identify relevant items, and discover related resources.
Check an item's availability
Once you have located a record you want to consult, look for the access links in the brief item record.
Click the Available online or Available at links to reveal more information in the detailed view.
Access eBooks and journal articles online
In the detailed record view, look for links to the publisher's website in the View Online section.
Locate and request a physical item held by the library.
In the detailed record view, look for the How to get it section. If the item is available you can request it for collection and find its location and shelfmark within the library (Example).
Identify relevant items from records
The results page displays a lot of useful information for each record. Use this information to evaluate the relevance of the resource to your research.
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Number of results: A good indicator of the scope of your search or the coverage of the topic.
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Resource type: Article, Book, DVD, etc ...
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Title
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Citation
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Brief description or abstract: Displays your search term within the document description or abstract.
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Content attributes: Determines the credibility and availability of the resource. See the Journal Articles FAQs for more information about the Peer review process and Open Access articles.
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Citation trail: These buttons allow you to search articles cited-in or citing this article. See follow the citation trail below.
Discover related resources
The Library Search offers features to help you extend the scope of your search and find other related resources. Look for these features in the research results page and the detailed records view.
Follow the citation trail
The Library Search can detect when an online resource is cited in another resource.
Look for the Cited in and Citing this buttons in the upper right corner of the brief item records and on the detailed record view in the Citations section (example).
Follow the links in the details
Another way to explore resources is to follow the Creator and Subject sections in the detailed record view (example).
