Holman Library One Search
The library One Search searches for information in all library databases and collections at once.
Sometimes that is very helpful - and other times, the results can be overwhelming and irrelevant.
Here are a few reasons to use the One Search:
- Use it for an overview of "the conversation" on a topic. Type in your keywords to get a sense of the range of things journalists, scholars, and others are looking at on the topic.
- Relatedly, the One Search can be useful for narrowing down an overly broad topic. Type in starting keywords and find subtopics as you look over what you find.
- Limit to Reference with filters on the left menu in One Search and you'll be searching in a broader reference collection than Gale eBooks.
- The One Search is useful for looking for scholarship across all the library's different databases at once.
- The One Search is the only way to find print books and chapters - and a useful way to search print and ebooks at once.
- Click on the title of something found with the One Search to learn more about that item before reading/ viewing it.
- The One Search defaults to sources we have available in full text only. That can reduce your frustration. That said, sometimes it is important to check the box to include sources not available in full text. That expands your research to sources you can borrow for free with interlibrary loan.
Here are a few reasons to use individual databases:
- It can be overwhelming to find so much at once - and thus difficult to find what you need.
- Subject terms listed in the filters of the One Search are overly general. Academic Search Complete and ProQuest provide much more relevant and useful Subject Terms.
- The One Search does not have a limiter for trade articles. To find them, it works best to go directly to individual databases and limit to trade at source type.
