Skip to main

Library search tips

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your results, these tips will help you search smarter, save time, and get the most out of everything the library has to offer.

For the best experience, sign into Library search using your Federation ID and password.

The Library search is your go-to tool for exploring just about everything we have in our collection without encountering any paywalls. It’s a great starting point for academic research, searching across books and ebooks, full-text journal articles, theses and dissertations and videos and multimedia resources.

Start a basic search

  1. Go to the Libary homepage
  2. Type your search terms (keywords) into the Search box to begin your search. Need help getting started? Check out our tips to build your search strategy.

Find online and physical resources

Library search makes it easy to find both online and physical resources. Whether you’re after a journal article you can access from home, or a book to pick up on campus, you’ll find everything in one place.

Refine your search using filters (Tweak my results)

Use filters in Search to narrow down your search results and focus on high-quality academic sources, while hiding the results you don't want.

Select options under the 'Tweak my results menu' to narrow your results. If you want to keep your search settings, just select 'Remember all filters'.

Tip: For more complex searches, you might want to use Advanced Search. It gives you even more control to combine keywords and set specific criteria.

Get citations from Library search

Library search can generate citations (references) for the items you find, but keep in mind these are automatically created, and can be incorrect. It’s always best to double-check any citations you get from Library search using FedCite, which gives you examples of accurate, properly formatted citations.

Save your search results

Saving searches and setting up alerts in Library search helps you stay organised, track useful resources, and get notified when new research matching your interests becomes available.