Using Central Search

• Getting Started/Basic Search
• Understanding Results
• Printing or Saving Results

1. Go to Central Search: http://gm2uj6fj8u.cs.serialssolutions.com/

2. From the database menu, click the box(es) next to a database name, or Select All to search everything.

3. Type a word or phrase in the search box.

4. Choose a search type from the drop-down list to the right of the search box (Keyword, Author, Title, Subject, etc.)

5. Click Search.

   TIPS

• Click Search by Category (above the search box) to search only databases in a specific discipline or format; click Search by Database (default) to return to the full list of databases.

• Use AND to connect multiple keywords, and place "double quotation marks" around simple phrases, e.g. "school violence" AND prevention

• If a search retrieves no results for a particular database, try searching the database directly (choose the database title in the menu list or go to the Online Research Databases page)

• If a search type doesn’t exist in a database or catalog, you will retrieve nothing for that resource. E.g.,  Full Text search of Palomar Library Catalog yields “0” results because there is no full-text in the catalog.

Advanced Search

    Advanced Search allows you to construct a search using up to four different search types (e.g., search for an author AND title together).

1. Choose Advanced Search tab on search page

2. Follow steps 1-4 of Basic Search

3. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for up to 3 additional search boxes

4. Click Search.

View Article Results

1. Results are sorted by date with the most current articles listed first. To re-sort by Title, Author, or Database click on your choice under Sort Results By on the left of the screen.

2. Results for each database are listed on the bottom left side of screen. To view only the results from a particular database, click on the blue, underlined number following the database name.

3. Click on the article title to view citation information, abstract, and full-text of the article (if available). NOTE: Full-text documents from JSTOR and ArtSTOR are not available when searching off-campus.

4. Click Show/Hide Abstract to view only the abstract.

    TIPS

        To redo your search, on the left side of the screen choose:

• Refine Search to add additional search terms, change to a different search type, or select different items to search.

• New Search to return to the search form and start over.

• Click Full Text in the Filter by box to limit results just to those with full articles attached.

Print or Save Results

1. Full-text articles: full text articles can only be printed/downloaded one-by-one through the new browser window that opens when you click the article title; use each databases’ print or save feature

2. Citations only: Click Print or Save Records. Another window pops up with the same list of results.

3. In the new window, put a checkmark into the box(es) of the record(s) you want to keep OR the Select All Records box to keep everything.

4. In the Choose a Format box, select HTML or Plain text. Another window pops up with only the marked results.

5. Follow the instructions in the Exported Records screen to print or download.

Return to Central Search or Online Databases