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<p>For many of your assignments, it is quite likely that you&rsquo;ll be required to find additional information resources. Most modules have a reading list to help you find out more about the subject, but Library Search is the ideal place to help you go beyond your reading list and to find additional information about a topic. Here is what Library Search looks like&hellip; but what exactly is it?</p>
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<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Put simply, Library Search is like a big academic search engine. It is an easy-to-use tool which allows you to search across the huge range of resources provided by the OU Library that you can access anytime and anywhere. You can use it to find journal articles, eBooks, images, newspaper articles, databases, and more.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">By finding and using good quality information in your assignments, you are demonstrating to those marking your work that your opinions are informed and built on research conducted by experts in your field ;&ndash; helping you to attract top marks. ;However, learning to use the ;Library ;and its resources is an important skill to master. ;To help you get started, this post will provide you with 5 top tops ;on how to make effective use of ;Library Search ;to find the information you need for your studies.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Always remember to sign in when using Library Search so that you can access the full range of features and find all available resources.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><strong><u>Tip 1: Searching and viewing results</u></strong></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><strong><u> ;</u></strong></span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">If you were to go to Library Search and simply type ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">digital wellbeing</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">, for example, into the search box, the search would retrieve many thousands of results&hellip; but don&#039;t panic. You can see from each record in your results list what type of resource it is (for example journal article, ebook, thesis). Basic bibliographic details such as title, author and year of publication will also be provided. Clicking on ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Full text available</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;will take you straight through to the full text of the item, but if you want to find out more about the resource before you do that, click on the title.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11842" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture2.png" data-id="11842"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Some (but not all) records will provide a summary of what the article&#039;s about in the ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Details</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;area. This can help you decide whether you want to explore the text further. If the article you chose doesn&#039;t have one, try finding another.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11843" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture3.png" data-id="11843"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Peer review</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;is a form of quality control. It means that academics in the field have scrutinised and evaluated the article prior to publication. Any articles that have been subject to this process will have &#039;peer reviewed&#039; in the record.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">When you view the full record for a journal article, the title of the journal it&#039;s published in will be listed underneath the article title. In the ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">View Online</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;area you&#039;ll also be able to see which provider is giving us access to that journal. Sometimes our access might be through more than one provider and each one might cover different date ranges.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11844" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture4.png" data-id="11844"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Next, we&rsquo;ll be looking at some of the filters which will help you narrow down your results list.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><strong><u>Tip 2: Filtering your results</u></strong></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><strong><u> ;</u></strong></span></p>
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<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">When you use Library Search, you&#039;re searching across lots of different individual collections at once. This means that you can sometimes end up with what feels like an overwhelming number of results. One way of focusing your search and retrieving fewer, more relevant results, is to use the filter options available at the side of your results list.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">The different ways you can filter your results include:</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<ul>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="7"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Resource type</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="7"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Subject</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="7"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Creation date</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="7"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Author</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="7"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Language</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="7"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Collection</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Using filters is a quick and easy way to remove irrelevant resources. There are lots of other reasons you might want to filter your results. For example, you might be looking for recently published material, or a particular type of resource, such as peer-reviewed journal articles.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Your active filters will display at the top of the page, and you can remove individual ones at any time by selecting the cross next to the filtered word. If you want to remove all filters, click on ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Reset filters</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11846" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture6-1.png" data-id="11846"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">To keep using a particular filter in subsequent searches, select the padlock. This will turn it into what&#039;s called a ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">persistent filter</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;and it will be active for the rest of your session. You can cancel this at any time by clicking on the padlock again.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Next, we&#039;ll be looking at how you can save and organise all your favourite resources in one place.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><u><strong>Tip 3: Adding items and searches to your &lsquo;My Favourites&rsquo; section</strong></u></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><u><strong> ;</strong></u></span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">&#039;My Favourites&#039; is an area of Library Search where you can save items that you&#039;ve found and want to keep track of. You can also save searches here so that it&#039;s easy to re-run them at a later date. You can access &#039;My Favourites&#039; by selecting the pin icon next to your name. ;</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
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<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><strong><u>Adding items to My Favourites</u></strong></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><strong><u> ;</u></strong></span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">You can add items of interest to &#039;My Favourites&#039; by clicking on the ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">pin</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;within the item record. The pin will then appear crossed out and you can click on this if or when you want to remove the item. When you&#039;ve added a few items, go to your &#039;My Favourites&#039; area by selecting the pin at the top of the page, next to your name. By default, your &#039;Favourites&#039; will be sorted in the order in which you added them. You can order by title or author instead by changing the option in the ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Sort by</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;area.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
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<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><strong><u>Adding searches to My Favourites</u></strong></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><strong><u> ;</u></strong></span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Each time you run a search there will be an option to ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Save search</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;at the top of your results. If you click on this your current search will be added to the &#039;Saved searches&#039; area of &#039;My Favourites&#039; and will include any filters that were applied to that search. Saved searches stay in &#039;My Favourites&#039; until you decide to remove them, even if you exit Library Search.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">You can also activate the ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">set alert for this search</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;feature by selecting the bell icon. This means that a message will be sent to your email address any time items that match the criteria of your saved search are added to Library Search. To cancel an alert, select the icon of the bell again.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11850" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture10-1.png" data-id="11850"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">In the &#039;My Favourites&#039; area there is also a ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Search history</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;tab. Clicking on this will bring up a list of all the searches you&#039;ve run in your current session. ;</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">This list clears every time you exit Library Search</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;so if there is something there that you&#039;d like to save for next time, click on the pin icon to add the search to your saved searches.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11851" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture11.png" data-id="11851"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><strong><u>Tip 4: Assigning tags</u></strong></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><strong><u> ;</u></strong></span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Tags</span><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;are words or phrases that you assign to items to help you categorise and organise them. You can assign as many tags to an item as you like, so it&#039;s a more flexible way of managing information than using folders.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">To assign a tag, simply go to your &#039;My Favourites&#039; area by clicking the pin next to your name at the top of the page, find an item you want to tag, click on the pencil icon, and select &#039;Add new tag&#039;. Then type in the name of tag you&#039;re adding and press the Enter key.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11852" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture12.png" data-id="11852"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">As you add tags to different resources in your &#039;My Favourites&#039; area you&#039;ll see a list of tags building up at the side of the page. When you click on any tag in that list it will instantly bring up all of the items that have had that tag attached to them.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><img class="fr-fic fr-dib wp-image-11853" src="https://thehootstudents.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Picture13.png" data-id="11853"></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Before you start tagging, it&#039;s always useful to spend time thinking how you might want to categorise your resources. For example, do you want to be able to recall items relating to particular subjects that have cropped up in your module? Perhaps you&#039;d like to be able to identify which resources will be useful for particular TMAs? Remember, you can assign as many tags as you like to a single item. If you wish to remove any tags from items, click on the pencil icon next to the tag and select the cross next to the tag name.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"><u><strong>Tip 5: Where to go for additional help and resources</strong></u></span><span data-ccp-props="{"><u><strong> ;</strong></u></span></p>
<ul>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="8"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">Online training sessions onâ¯</span><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/training-and-events/using-library-search-for-your-assignment" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">Using Library Search for your assignment</span></span></a><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="8"><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/help-and-support/finding-resources-for-your-assignment" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">Finding resources for your assignment</span></span></a><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="8"><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/help-and-support/finding-information-on-your-research-topic" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">Finding information on your research topic</span></span></a><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="8"><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/help-and-support/finding-and-using-books-and-theses" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">Finding and using books and theses</span></span></a><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="8"><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/node/98242&;f=27947" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">F</span><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">inding ejournals and articles</span></span></a><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
<li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="ï·" data-listid="8"><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB">If at any point during your studies you have problems using Library Search or finding information, please remember the ;</span><a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/library/help-and-support/contacting-the-helpdesk" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="Hyperlink">Library Helpdesk</span></span></a><span data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-GB"> ;is here for you.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"> ;</span></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun" data-ccp-charstyle-defn="{"><em>The Library Services website is your gateway to a wide range of online information resources. ;</em></span></span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun" data-ccp-charstyle-defn="{"><em>You can use it to find out more ;</em></span></span><em><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/about" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">about the Library</span></span></a><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">, search our extensive ;</span></span><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/library-resources" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">online collection of Library resources</span></span></a><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun"> ;(</span><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">including</span><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun"> ;eBooks, journals, databases and more), and explore ;</span><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">our</span><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun"> ;</span></span><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/training-and-events" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">programme of live online training sessions</span></span></a><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun"> ;that are available to all OU students and staff. Or indeed, come and speak with us at the ;</span></span><a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/library/help-and-support/contacting-the-helpdesk" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">Helpdesk</span></span></a><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun">: we look forward to it and are ready to save the day 24/7.</span></span><span data-contrast="none" lang="EN-GB"><span data-ccp-charstyle="eop" data-ccp-charstyle-defn="{">â¯</span></span></em><span data-ccp-props="{"><em> ;</em></span></p>
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