A-Z Databases: ICE Virtual Library

Go to Databases A-Z and select 'ICE Virtual Library'.

Under "Shibboleth sign in" / "Geographic Region" scroll down and select "UK Higher Education".

Select "University of the West of Scotland" from the list.

Agree to the "Terms and Conditions" and "Privacy Policy" (click on "Yes").

If you are asked for a username/password please use your UWS staff or student details.

Please ensure that in the top right hand corner of the screen you can see "Your access is provided by UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND".

ICE Virtual Library provides access to the following:

• 35 peer reviewed journals (publishing over 1400 new papers each year)
• Archival content dating back to 1836
• Over 1500 ebooks

Please note that not all content may be included in our UWS subscription.  Please refer to the "Getting the Full Text" section of this Guide.

ICE Virtual Library offers a basic/quick search option at the top of the homepage.

Select keywords and/or phrases to describe what you want to look for and type these into the search box provided. Click on the blue "Search" box to carry out the search.

You can choose the "fields" that you wish to search using the drop down menu between the Search box and the blue Search button.  This will allow you to search everywhere or you can limit to a specific field, such as Author, if you are searching for content written by a specific author.

Once you have a list of search results these can be limited by "type", such as journal articles or book chapters.

The Advanced Search option is available by clicking on the blue "Search" button before typing anything into the "Search" box.  The following features are available using this option:

• Phrase search - include the terms in quotation marks to ensure that they appear together (e.g. "listed buildings").

• Boolean search:
  • AND narrows results. All connected terms must be included in the results (e.g. "listed buildings" AND restoration).
  • OR broadens results. Either connected term can be included in the results (e.g. "listed buildings" OR "heritage buildings").
  • NOT narrows results. The second term must be excluded from the results (e.g. "listed buildings" NOT restoration).
• Wildcards - use a question mark (?) to represent one character and an asterisk (*) to represent zero or more characters (e.g. wom?n will find either woman or women) (e.g. legislat* will find legislate, legislation or legislating).

The Advanced Search option allows you to select the fields you wish to search (also available using Basic/Quick Search).

You can add extra search boxes by clicking the + sign.

Search results are ranked in order of Relevance (usually the best option) but can be changed and listed by Date so that the most recent results display first.

Searches can also be limited by date so that only information published within a specified time is searched (e.g. 2010 - 2021).

UWS Library does not subscribe to all of the journals and eBooks available from ICE Virtual Library.

If a journal article is unavailable via our subscription, it might be possible to source a free copy on the internet that is provided under an open access arrangement. This can be checked using Google Scholar. Type in one author's surname and add the title of the article in quotation marks (to look for the words in the same order). If the article is freely available, you will see a PDF or HTML notation to the right of the citation.

You may also be able to get the article by requesting an Inter-Library Loan.

ICE Publishing (2021) Welcome to ICE Virtual Library. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR5fo5Efu5Y (Accessed 9 August 2021).

ICE Publishing (2021) Creating an ICE Virtual Library Account. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9gVFujf_A (Accessed 9 August 2021).

ICE Publishing (2021) Searching ICE Virtual Library. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AW6qQv2EfQ (Accessed 9 August 2021).

• You may wish to set up a personal account within ICE Virtual Library.  Please note that while this allows you to access additional features of the database (listed below) it does not give you access to additional full-text content to which UWS Library does not subscribe!
• Additional features include:
  • Receive Table of Content (TOC) alerts by email
  • Receive individual journal article tracking alerts by email
  • Save searches to be re-run at a later date
  • Save favourite journal articles and journal titles
  • Link a mobile device in order to access UWS content

          Click on "Register" at the top right hand corner of the ICE Virtual Library website to set up a personal account.  

Accessibility Statement

This work in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.