How To Search
Library Literature

Library Literature offers citations and summaries to thousands of scholarly articles, book chapters, dissertations, and reports in the fields of librarianship, book arts, publishing, information science, and related disciplines. Users can find copies of the articles by checking the Library’s holdings and finding the call numbers of the journals containing the

Getting Started

Click "Library Literature" on the Libraries’ databases list.

Please be sure to click "Log out" at the top right of the screen when you are finished using Library Literature!

Basic Searching

> Connect keywords with AND to find articles that contain all the words.
Example: library and architecture finds articles that contain both library and architecture

> Connect keywords with OR to find articles that contain either word.
Example: internet or web finds articles that contain either internet or web.

> Connect keywords with NOT to find articles that contain the first word but not the second.
Example: libraries not school finds articles containing libraries but not school.

>Connect keywords with NEAR to find articles with both words in the same sentence.
Example: books near publish finds articles with books and publish in the same sentence

> Enclose phrases in quotation marks. Quotation marks can help tomake your searches more specific.
Example: "printing press" finds articles that contain this exact phrase.

> Use an * on the root of a keyword to find various forms.
Example: libr* finds library, libraries, librarian, librarians, and librarianship.

> If necessary, use parentheses to organize the search when combining methods.
Example: publishing and (magazines or journals) finds articles about publishing either magazines or journals.

Improving Your Searches

Limiting: Webpspirs databases enable the user to limit the search to a specific area such as a certain language or publication year. By clicking the blue Change limits button a the top right, the user can limit searches to a specific source (journal), peer-reviewed journals, document type, or language.

Advanced Search (white tab on the top left side of the search screen) allows you to search different fields simultaneously. For example, you could search for "Will Manly" in the author field and search the journal name field for American Libraries to find all articles published in that journal by Will Manly.

Index: Index (white tab on the top left side of the screen) allows you to browse a list of subject headings and subheadings. Suggest can help you think of keywords to use in your search.

Finding the Full-texts of the Articles

A few citations now offer links to online texts. These citations display crimson flags next to the title and contain "EBSCO Online" links to the full texts. To find copies of other articles, you must look in the Libraries’ Catalog to see if the campus libraries own the journal containing the article:

> At the bottom of the citation, click the blue "Check for Holdings" to enter the Catalog.
> The journal will appear if the library owns it.
> Scroll down and see if the library has the appropriate month and year of the journal or magazine (Please note: if multiple headings for the journal appear, click on the number of each heading to see if the library owns the appropriate month and year.)
> Write down the Location and Call Number for the journal or magazine. (In the Gorgas Library, recent issues are located on Floor 2. Older, Bound volumes are on Floor 4M). If the journal is not available in the campus libraries, the red message "Your search resulted in no hits!" will appear on the screen
> Before going to retrieve the issue, be sure to write down the bibliographic information from Library Lit such as issue date and page number.
> Ask for assistance at the Information Desk if you cannot find the journal!

You can also orders articles not available at UA by filling out the Interlibrary Loan Request Form accessible from the Libraries’ home page: www.lib.ua.edu.

Printing, emailing, and saving

Checkmark the records that you want to print, email, or save.

Printing: Click the Print icon at the top right of the result list. Click the yellow "Print" button at the top right. Click "OK".

Emailing: Click the Email icon at the top right of the results list. Fill out "From", "Send records to" and "subject" fields. Click the "Send Mail" button at the top right.

Saving: Insert a disk in the computer. Click the Save icon at the top of the page. Click the "Save" button at the top right. Select "A drive" from the "Save in" menu. Click "Save".

Help

>Ask a librarian at the Information Desk in one of the campus libraries.
>Call the Libraries at (205) 348-6047