Discovery
Fast access to material on our databases, journals and catalogue – all with one simple search
Discovery lets you quickly check our main collections from a single search. It works like an academic search engine that helps you find books, chapters, articles, ebooks, dissertations and DVDs. If you need a more precise or detailed search, you should try individual databases.
This page includes tips and a video tutorial to help you find material using Discovery. Alternatively, go to Discovery by clicking the button below to start searching now.
Discovery tips
Where to start
You can start a search of Discovery directly from the box near the top of the library home page on this site. You will need your Shibboleth login to access the results.
You can also link to Discovery using the button above to log in before you start searching. Logging in gives you more opportunity to refine your results in the search options or you can go to advanced search.
Basic searching
A basic search defaults to searching multiple fields at once. However, you can choose to search only the title or author name to be more precise. This can be especially useful when you want to do a quick search for a specific item. See our separate web page for more about searching for specific items.
You can also limit your results using the following:
- full text – for items you can read online
- available in library collection – for physical items such as books, theses and DVDs, as well as items that can be viewed onlinet
Natural language search
When in Discovery, you can also choose to use natural language search, which uses AI to convert research questions or statements into search queries and aims to make it easier to find the material you want. To enable natural language search, you need to click the toggle button below the search box before submitting your search (circled in the screenshot below).
This feature is still being developed and there are some drawbacks: for example, including a question mark on the end of a natural language search can dramatically affect the results you get. You might need to experiment to find what you need.
Getting access to items
If we have direct access to the full text of items in your results, you will see an access options button (circled in screenshot below). Where only one option is available, the button will offer only that. If multiple access options are available, you will need to click on the button and choose which you would prefer from the dropdown – these can include ‘PDF’ and ‘online full text’. If a physical item is available, you’ll see the option to ‘retrieve catalogue Item’.
Articles found in some individual databases will offer a generate AI insights button, which will offer a summary of the article in up to five bullet points. This feature is still under development and information in these summaries should be checked and cannot be assumed to be as accurate as an article abstract.