Janelle's Introduction to Research Guide

During the summer 2025 semester (date TBA) UFV Library's main search interface will be updated. This will change the display for users in the main search as well as all EBSCO databases. 

Depending on the type of resource, you may want to search via the Library website or you may want to try a web search. Below are tips for searching via the library databases. 

1. By default, Find It searches all terms you have entered, without the need to use AND.  For example: children television violence will find items that contain all 3 terms.
    
2. By default, Find It searches through the full text of documents (if available).  This may cause a large number of results, and not all are relevant to your subject.  Results are returned in a relevancy ranked order.
    
3. To improve the relevancy of your search results, enclose phrases in "quotation marks".  For example:  "British Columbia" or "global warming".
    
4. Include the apostrophe.  For example, use "handmaid's tale" rather than "handmaids tale"
    
5. To find variant endings for a word, use the * asterisk (truncation symbol.)  For example:  delinquen* finds delinquent, delinquents, delinquency
    
6. To find books, e-books. videos or other items in the UFV library, refine your search by selecting "Catalogue only".
    
7. To find scholarly journal articles, refine your search by selecting "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed)"
    
8. You can refine a search by limiting to Language. However, be aware that many English language articles have not been tagged as English, so will be missing from your search results.
    
9. Many items have direct links to retrieve the full text. For those that don't, use "Full Text Finder" to determine if UFV has the item in print or online.
    
10. To add in more Canadian content, explore the "Additional Databases" on the right side of the screen.