Highline College Library OneSearch
Stephanie Ojeda Ponce
Each college funds a library. Most libraries will have a physical building with print and digital materials. They also have a virtual component with access to virtual books, articles, data, streaming content, and even support services like tutoring. The Highline College Library will be your main starting place for your research this quarter. We’ll also go to the library for some workshops on research methods. College libraries are one of the fundamental services and amenities of a college. Researchers at colleges and universities often partner with librarians because that profession and field studies the cataloging of research and can be specialists in specific types of research and information.
On the homepage, you’ll be able to access the most common way you’ll run searches for class, the One Search Tool.
One Search Tool
The Primary One Search Tool that you can find on the Highline Library homepage is a simple and efficient way to conduct research. This tool searches most of the library holdings including the print catalog, digital catalog, and databases. While you’ll need to use more targeted and complex search techniques later on, the One Search approach is great when you are getting started because it allows you to find a large variety of resources such as books, articles, videos, and more.
As the video showed, we can use the One Search tool to find many types of resources in the databases our library subscribes to. Above is an example of an article from the database named EBSCO Academic Search Complete that was found by searching One Search.
Although there are many good sources available on the web, there are also advantages to using library databases over the web.
- Access Premium Content for Free: Access to college library databases is one of the benefits supported by your tuition and fees. Unlike academic articles or reports you might come across in Google Scholar, or even if you search the databases without logging in to your institutional account. Even if you find an article that is not available in the library’s current holdings, contact the librarians because they might be able to find it in another database or request the item through interlibrary loan (ILL).
- Full-text Available: Most library databases provide the full text of the article in various formats, and allow users to print, email, or save copies of the article. In the image above, the red arrow points to the formats available, and the green arrow shows our options for getting a copy for our records. Search results can be filtered to only show items for which full text is available.
- Citations Provided: Many library databases provide a citation for your bibliography, references, or works cited list. In the image above, the blue arrows show where to click to view the citation for the article, and the APA citation for this article. Scrolling down would provide multiple other citation styles.
- Captioned Videos: Videos in educational institution databases are usually captioned, making them easier for everyone to use. And video databases also usually provide a citation, as shown by the red arrows in the image below.
Image from the Films on Demand database showing an MLA citation
