A-Z Databases: One Search: Welcome

You can access One Search by clicking the link below. The log in screen will ask you for your UWS email and password.

Signing In

One of the first things you should do is sign in to your account. The sign in link is in the top right hand corner - use your usual UWS log-in.

Signing in enables you to access your account, providing you with the ability to view the print books you've borrowed and renew them. Additionally, being signed in helps you to see where the full-text of books and journal articles are available electronically and activates the option for you to reserve print books.

My Library Card

Once you've logged in, you should see your name in the top right hand corner.

If you click on this you will be able to access a section called My Library Card - by clicking on this you will be able to

• See what books you have on loan.
• Renew these books where this is possible.
• See if items you have requested are available for collection.
• View your saved items (any items you have pinned to My Favorites).
• View previous searches you have run.

You can also access One Search through the Library tile on the UWS student app.

If activated, your personalised 'My Library Card' entry will be displayed automatically.

One Search will be really useful for easily accessing books and journal articles - for a lot of academic research, these will be important components. To search for these effectively you have to use different searches to locate these resources.

Books: when you're looking for a book, whether print or electronic, use the Local Search function.

Journal articles: if you're looking for a journal article, use the Articles search.

Basic Search

Use the default Basic (Simple) Search in One Search for very straightforward searches, e.g. an author's surname and a word from the title. 

By default, the system will look in any field for entries that match your search terms. This means it searches for the term across the item record - in the title, the authors' names, subject headings.

You can enhance your search by using some of these techniques:

• Phrase search - including the terms in double quotation marks "" to ensure they appear together (e.g. "logistics innovation").

• Boolean search:

  • AND (+) - narrows down the results. All connected terms must be included in the results (e.g. logistics AND supply chain).

  • OR (|) - broadens out the results. Either connected term can be included in the results (e.g. logistics OR supply chain).

  • NOT (-) narrows down the results. The second term must be excluded from the results (e.g. "logistics innovation" NOT patenting).

• Truncation symbol * to find variations of word endings (e.g. leaders* will find leaders and leadership).

Advanced search

Prefer the Advanced Search option when you are looking for more complex topics. This options enables you to specify the search field you wish to use.

When searching for literature in general, and journal articles in particular, the search terms used are crucial to the success of the search. It is a good idea to consider your search terms in advance, partly due to the volume of literature available and  partly as the same topic may be written up using different terms.

• Try brainstorming all the different search terms you might want to search, as well as sub-topics and specific aspects you wish to focus on.
• Think of different ways of expressing the same topic.
• Remember variant spellings and different terminology used in different countries.

When you start reading around your subject you may learn new terms - if you do, it can be a good idea to re-run your literature search with these terms.

Can't find the support you need?

• Email us
• 'Log a Call' on the self-service portal
• Visit the Library Info Point on campus

You can also book an appointment with an academic librarian to discuss how best to find information on your topic, referencing, using EndNote and more.

Books

When searching for books use Local Search. You may find it easier to use Advanced Search option, as this will allow you greater flexibility.

If you already know the details of the book, one option is to enter an author's surname and one or more words from the title.

If you are searching generally for books on you topic, enter keywords describing the topic.

Note: books tend to be general in scope so you may need to keep your search terms broad, e.g. search for 'nursing practice', or 'nursing skills' rather than 'blood pressure management'.

You can also use the same techniques to find electronic books on your topic.

Journal Articles

When searching for journal articles use the Articles search. You may find it easier to use Advanced Search option, as this will allow you greater flexibility.

• Articles are often on very specific topics so try to have a clear idea what your looking for. For instance, a search on a general topic like head trauma will bring up a huge amount of results - add more search terms to narrow your search: 
  
  head trauma
  AND rugby
   
• If you're getting too many results, in advanced search change the search field from a keyword to a title search. This will reduce the number of results while increasing the relevance.
   
• If you're getting too few results: 
  • try reducing the number of search terms you are using.
  • check you are using AND and OR in an appropriate way.
  • remove quotation marks from search terms
     
• Creating an effective literature search can be difficult in some circumstances - if you need help at any point, please contact library@uws.ac.uk to arrange an appointment with a librarian.

Once you've performed a search, it's possible to filter the results to suit your needs. This filter bar will appear on the right-hand side of the screen if you are using a computer; you can find it by clicking the filter symbol if you're using a smart phone.

Here are some of the most useful filter options:

Availability: either In the Library or Full Text Online.

Library: this allows you to limit results to specific UWS Library sites.

Type of Item: you can limit your results to Books, Journals, Theses, Dissertations etc.

Creation Date: use this to limit the results by publication date (e.g. only books published between 2015 - 2020).

It can be useful to save links your results - whether these are books or journal articles - in order to refer to them at a later date.

Once you've signed in, an easy way to do this is to 'pin' your results. You can do this by clicking on the pin icon beside a result:

You should be able to see that same Pin symbol in the top right hand of the screen - by clicking here you should be able to see any items you've pinned. Once you have saved them it is possible to attach labels to them - you can use this to label all reading relevant for a specific essay or module.

You may also wish to share your findings with others. One thing to be aware of is that the URLs when using OneSearch are temporary - that is, they only work while you're using it and can't be sent as a link. In order to send a result with a permalink, you can click this option beneath the search results.

Here's how you can get hold of the full text, once you've found what you're looking for. These work better if you're logged in so make sure you've done this before trying to access the full text.

To access any sort of item, first click on the title to get through to the full record.

Print Book
If it's a print book it will either say it's available or not. It will also tell you where you can find it. Here's an example of what this would look like: 

Paisley > Level 3 > 823.912 ORW

This means that it's available in the Paisley campus library and that it's on Level 3 of that library. 823.912 ORW indicates where it is held on the shelf - signage in the library will help you to locate this, but please ask for help if you can't find it.

If the book is not available, you will see an option to Reserve - this means that you'll join a queue to borrow the book once it's returned. Please note: the option to reserve will only show up once you're signed in.

Electronic Books and Journal Articles

Electronic books will say Online Access - clicking on this will take you to the full-text of the eBook.

Electronic journal articles will say Full-text Available - clicking on this will take you to the article home page.

If you are already familiar with a specific journal title and want to search for it quickly, see our video for a demonstration.