Tutorial on Library Research

After reading the sections and watching the video on this page, you should be able to: 

1. Identify the five types of resources that you can search for using the library catalog. 
2. Identify the two types of formats in which the resources you can search for using the library catalog can be in.  
3. Identify the two most helpful filters in the library catalog and explain what they do.
4. Identify the four most helpful tools in the library catalog and explain what they do. 

The library catalog was updated during the Spring 2021 semester. You can now search for several different types of resources rather than just books and ebooks. The types of resources are:

• Books and eBooks
• Video
• Audio
• Articles
• Everything

By default, the catalog is set to search for books and ebooks. To select a different type of resource, just click on the relevant tab above the search field. 

For each type of resource, some of the items are in physical format and some are in electronic format. For example, video items might be on disk (physical) or streaming (electronic). Magazine articles might be in a magazine that's printed on paper (physical) or a PDF in a library database (electronic). 

Physical items are located in the campus libraries. Electronic items are located in library databases. The library catalog contains descriptions of all the items that the NOVA Libraries own or to which they subscribe. These descriptions are called catalog records. The catalog records of physical items include the items' call numbers, which are used to find the items on the shelves in the library. The next page in this Guide, Finding Books on the Shelves, explains how to find physical items on the library shelves using their call numbers. The catalog records of electronic resources include links to the resources themselves (in the databases where the items are located). In order to access electronic resources from off campus, you have to sign in with your MyNOVA username and password. 

Despite the convenience of being able to search for several types of resources using the library catalog, it's important to note that the library catalog does not search all of the databases to which the Libraries subscribe (for various reasons). This means that the resources in those databases will not appear as search results. The only way to access the resources in those databases is to search the databases directly. For more information about which databases are searched by the library catalog, see Library Catalog - What Am I Searching?  

Another reason to search databases directly, rather than searching them from the catalog, is that you'll be able to use all of the filters and tools that each database provides. Many databases include unique filters and tools that are customized to the type of resources that they contain. For example, a subject-specific database for psychology might have a filter for methodology, which lets you search for articles about research that was conducted using a specific methodology. Examples of these methodologies are clinical case study, clinical trial, and empirical study. This filter would not be available in the library catalog. 

For these reasons, I recommend searching for electronic resources, especially articles, in databases themselves rather than in the library catalog. 

The NOVA Libraries Video Tutorials Guide  includes a page named Library Catalog  that contains links to videos about using the library catalog.

The library catalog provides several filters that you can use to narrow down your search results. Two helpful filters are: Availability and Campus Library.

The Availability filter lets you narrow down your results to either physical books or eBooks. To choose the former, click on the link named Held at Library. To choose the latter, click on the link named Full Text Online.

The Campus Library filter lets you narrow down your results to physical items at a specific NOVA campus library. To choose a particular library, click on the link that is the name of the library that you're interested in. This filter will automatically filter out ebooks from your search (If you haven't already done so using the Availability filter). 

The library catalog provides several tools that you can use to manage resources. Four helpful filters are: Citation, Email, Permalink, and Print.

The citation tool gives you the citation for the item that you've selected. The citation is given in three different styles: APA, Chicago, and MLA. For more information about citing sources, see the Citing Sources page in this Guide. 

The email tool lets you send the record of the item that you've selected to the email address that you enter.

The permalink tool is an important, but often overlooked, tool. You've probably copied the address of a webpage and saved it somewhere so that you can return to the website later. It's important to understand that this process does not work when you're using library databases. So, you won't be able to return to an article that you found in a database by copying the contents of the address bar and saving it somewhere. This is because the strings of characters that appear in the address bar when you're using a library database contain information about your current browser session. This means that once you close your browser, thereby ending your browser session, the strings of characters that were in the address bar will no longer be valid. As a result, you won't be able to return to the page you were on when you copied the string of characters. You can avoid this problem by using the permalink tool, which generates a link that will get you back to the page that you were on when the link was generated.  

The print tool allows you to print the item that you've selected.