Searching Remote Databases

Your library may offer other resources to search, beyond your local library catalog. When you search multiple resources, the results appear in a single list.

Note: You can search remote databases using keyword, phrase, exact, advanced, or Boolean search methods. (Your library may not offer all of these methods.) You cannot browse remote databases. The following instructions apply to keyword searching.

  1. On the search page, select Select Databases. The Select Databases window opens with the library's default search databases (the local database and remote databases) selected. If you do not want to search the local catalog along with the remote databases, select the check box next to the local database to clear the check box.
  2. In the Select Databases window, check the databases you want to search. You can select a category check box to search all the targets in that category.
  3. At the bottom of the Select Databases window, select Set Databases to save the database selections and close the window. The search page appears with the Select Databases option highlighted to indicate you have made selections, and a Clear option to cancel your remote databases selections. Your selections remain in effect until you select Clear.
  4. Note: Clear deselects all databases and selects the library's local catalog and any default databases.

  5. Type the text to search for in the Search for box.
  6. Select the Search by box, and select a search field from the list.
  7. To limit your search, select the Limit by box, and select an option from the list.
  8. Note: Your Limit by selection may not work with the databases you have chosen to search.

  9. Click or tap the search icon to launch the search.

Viewing Your Results

If you have selected more than one search target, the results are displayed in a merged list. If your search included the local library catalog, the search results list first displays results from the local catalog. Click or tap Add Pending Results to add more results to the list. The number displayed at the top of the list changes as the results are added.

As results are being added from the selected databases, you can select Search Status to see the progress. A status window displays the total results for each database, the database status, the results pending, and the results retrieved. When all the pending records have been retrieved, the search bar indicates that all retrieved results have been added.

You can filter the search results list by database. The Narrow your search dashboard at the side of the page displays the Database facets list. Click a database facet in this list to filter your results to that database.

In the results list, the brief information for the title displays a database icon and the source database for titles found in remote databases.

Remote Databases in Follow-On Searches

Your library may provide automatic follow-on searches in specified remote resources when a search of the local library catalog produces no results. A message and link are displayed on the “no hits” page. You may need to select the link to determine if there are results in the follow-on databases.

The follow-on databases, and the local database, are also automatically selected on the Select Databases window. All subsequent searches use the selected databases, until you clear the search databases or end your session.