Search

OULA Quick Guide

The default search mode is Basic Search in the local index. In it you can search for Jyväskylä University Library’s books, journals, theses, etc. The alternative, PCI search, searches in the central indexes of different service providers. Use it, for example, if you need a limited number of articles on your topic. For the most part this guide also applies to PCI search.

A particular book, thesis or journal

  • In basic search the default is all JYU’s materials. If you first choose Books or Journals in the drop-down menu, the search result will be more accurate. Either Finnish or English can be used as search language.
  • When you start writing the book or journal title in the search box, the system begins to offer you alternatives among which you may almost at once find those you are looking for. Then choose the title from the list:
A search for particular item

  • If the title you are looking for is not offered automatically, write the full name of the book or journal: discourse analysis or use * (asterisk) to truncate the search word cognitive*. Enclosing the title in quotation marks, e.g. "discourse analysis", usually returns a more accurate search result.
  • Clicking on the title you will be taken from the search results to the actual book or journal record. The location, availability, and the option for checking whether the book can be reserved are shown at the bottom of the screen.
  • Clicking on Export record you can export the book reference to RefWorks bibliography manager. Check the reference carefully..

Author

Basic search

  • Write the author’s name in the search form. Enclosing the name in quotation marks, "borges jorge luis" or "jorge luis borges", usually gives a more accurate search result, as does choosing the material type, e.g. Books.
  • You can also search by corporate author "jyväskylän yliopisto".
  • If you only know the author’s surname, we recommend you to combine it with any word in the book title. You will perform a more accurate search by enclosing both the author and the word in quotation marks: "atwood" "lady".
Search by author

  • You can refine your search results using filters in Narrow search on the right-hand navigation pane and rearranging them in Sort drop-down menu.

Advanced search

In advanced search you can narrow down your search choosing author field: "borges jorge luis"

Advanced search by author

In advanced search you can also combine the author search with words describing your topic.

Refine search results with Narrow search filters.

Sort search results in Sort drop-down menu.

Subject search

Basic search

  • In basic search the default is in all OYK’s materials. In materials drop-down menu you can choose to narrow down your search e.g. to theses only
  • Enter words that describe your topic in the search form. To choose Finnish words you can use the online version of YSA (Finnish General Thesaurus).
  • When you want to search for an exact word, enclose it in quotes: "neuropsychology".
  • If you use multiple search words in a row, eg. feminis* histor*, the system combines them automatically with Boolean operator AND. This returns a list of references beginning with those that include all the words you searched for. To truncate search words use truncation mark * (asterisk).
Truncating words in search

  • Refine search results with Narrow search filters on the right-hand navigation pane.
  • Rearrange search results in Sort drop-down menu.

Advanced search

  • Advanced search searches in all OYK’s materials.
  • Enter words that describe your topic in the search box. All fields search will search for occurrences in all the words anywhere in the documents. With the Fields drop-down menu you can narrow down your search so that the words are only searched e.g. in the title or topic of a book or thesis.
  • To search for an exact word, put it in quotes: "neuropsychology".
  • You can combine search words with Boolean operators to form phrases:
Combining search fields

  • When there is an OR operator between search terms, either or both of them may appear in the search result, whereas words or phrases in separate search rows will be combined with AND operator. In this search example, then, references would be returned where either climate warming or climate change is always combined with Finland.
  • Refine search results with Narrow search filters on the right-hand navigation.
  • Rearrange search results in Sort drop-down menu.

Subject-specific databases

You can do subject-specific searches In OULA using PCI search, when you need a limited number of articles. Systematic and specific searches on particular disciplines should preferably be made in discipline-wise databases. They offer subject-specific help such as vocabularies and thesauri, age groups (e.g. infancy, aged), methodology (e.g. field study, interview), defining material type (e.g. review), etc.

When you know the database name, e.g. ERIC, MLA, search for it and choose Databases from the drop-down menu.

If you do not know the database name, you can search for a list of subject-related databases by entering the subject such as ecology or health sciences, and choosing Databases from the drop-down menu.

Searching for subject-spesific databases

The results list may include different types of discipline-specific databases such as reference databases, article databases and reference materials. You will be taken from the list to the database’s own user interface. Full texts of articles, books, and other documents are available at the workstations within the university network area, providing OYK has a license to use these resources.

Kysy apua / Ask for help

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