LibrarySearch Help

LibrarySearch allows you to search for billions of articles (both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed) that UO Libraries has access to or can easily get you access to through our interlibrary loan service.

LibrarySearch can be a helpful place to start your search when you want to discover a wide array of materials from multiple subject disciplines on a topic or when you know the title of an article you're looking for.

You may want to consult a subject-specific database if you would like to conduct a more focused search in a particular disciplinary area. You can find all of our databases available in the Databases A-Z List, or you can find the Research Guide for your discipline to find recommendations for which databases might be most relevant for you. If you have any questions about when to use LibrarySearch vs. a subject-specific database, please reach out via our Get Help page or by reaching out to your subject librarian.

If you're starting from the library homepage, you can change the search scope to "Articles" to limit your search results to articles, book chapters, and other content found in many library databases and from journal publishers. You can search by keyword, author, title, or subject (see the Basic Search page for more information).

If you're starting a search from within LibrarySearch, you can change the search scope to "Articles" from here. You can also use the filters under "Refine my results" to limit your search results to articles. One option is to check the "Journals (peer-reviewed)" box to limit your results to peer-reviewed articles. Another option is to use the article filter types under Resource Type to limit your search results to articles more generally, or to specific types of article content.

If we have access to the full text (PDF) of an article, the record will tell you we have access, either in print or online. For online articles, you should see the green text "full text available" next to a link icon. 

There are a few different ways you may be able to access the full text of an article. Many will be linked directly with links that say "Get PDF," "Download PDF," "Read online," or "Read article" (see example below). If more than one option appears, you can click on any of the links.

Sometimes you may have to click on "full text available" or open the record and click on options under "View online" to go through a particular database or journal subscription to access the full text of an article. Again, there may be multiple options for access, and you can click on any of them. Note that occasionally the database or journal coverage, noted under the source name, will not encompass the date of the specific article you are looking at, in which case we recommend using a different database/journal that does include the date of publication you are looking for (if there are multiple options), or using interlibrary loan (ILL).

What if the article you want isn't available online but is available in print through the UO Libraries? You can visit the library to use the material (checkout the relevant volume or scan the article yourself), or you can use our free "Scan & Deliver" service, which will deliver the scanned material to you via email. Scan & Deliver is only available to current UO faculty, students, and staff.

When you encounter an article in a journal we have in print, you will see Request: Scan & Deliver. You must be signed in to LibrarySearch to see the "Scan & Deliver" request option. Click on the link and you will be taken to the request form, which should automatically be filled in with the citation information.

What if the article you want isn't available through the UO Libraries? When searching LibrarySearch for articles you may encounter items with the message "Check if available from other libraries" and no link to full text. However, we can usually get these articles from another library through our interlibrary loan service (ILL). You will need to be signed in to LibrarySearch to see the request options. Under "Request from other libraries," click on "Get it" to place a request for the article.

Requests generally are filled quickly (there should be an estimate of how long the request will take to get to you) and you will receive an email at your @uoregon.edu address when the article is ready for download. Electronic articles can be downloaded from your LibrarySearch account and will be available for download for approximately two months.

Faculty, staff, and graduate and Honors College students also can gain immediate access to Elsevier articles through Article Galaxy Scholar (AGS). This option will appear for these groups of library users for included articles along with other request options when you are logged in to LibrarySearch.

You can also go directly to a blank interlibrary loan request form and fill out the request form with the article's citation information if you can't find it in LibrarySearch. If you have the article's DOI (digital object identifier), you can paste that into the form and it should be able to retrieve most of the article information for you. There will also be a link at the top of your search results that will take you to the blank ILL request form if you'd like to place a request for an item you are not finding in LibrarySearch.

For some articles, you may be able to view other articles that cite or are cited by the article you are looking for. This is generally found in Web of Science indexed articles. At the bottom of the record for the article, look for the heading "Items Cited" and links to find sources "citing this" or sources "cited in this" article. The list of citations may be incomplete.

This can be a useful way to find related information on a topic or to gauge the impact of particular articles. This search strategy is sometimes known as "citation chaining."

If you'd like to search for newspaper articles specifically, there is a separate search called Newspaper Search that will limit your results to news articles. Note that locally owned newspaper content should come up in a general search in LibrarySearch -- Newspaper Search will bring up additional newspaper content that isn't "owned" by UO, but that you can access or easily request. You can access Newspaper Search in two different ways:

Search for the topic you are interested in and then look for the link "Search Newspapers" under the Resource Type facet.

The other way you can access Newspaper Search is by clicking on the "Show More" menu at the top of the screen (three dots) and clicking on "Newspapers" to get to the Newspaper Search.

You can tell you are in Newspaper Search when it says NEWSPAPERS in front of the search box.

You can also search for newspapers by name, region, topic, and time period using additional resources. See the Finding Newspaper Resources guide for more information: