Using Discover Search
Barry Mauer and John Venecek
Discover is the name of the UCF libraries’ online catalog. The key access point is located in the center of the UCF Libraries’ homepage. Discover provides access to books, e-books, videos, journals, documents, and other resources owned by the UCF Libraries. For an overview of how to start searching Discover, let’s watch this short video:
Now let’s review some of the key points covered in the video:
Introduction: People often ask if you can search our subject databases in Discover. The answer is yes, but not all. For more comprehensive database searches, it’s recommended that you access those databases individually and use Discover primarily as a catalog search for books, media, course reserves, and other material owned by the UCF Libraries.
Basic Searching (0:21): Covers the most basic aspects of Discover searching such as using the main search bar and limiting your results by format and type of material you want such as books, articles, and videos.
Search Filters (0:56): Once you run a simple search, you’ll be taken to a results page where you have more search options and filters to help you refine your results by criteria such as date, language, and subject. You can use these filters to both include and exclude criteria to meet your needs. One important tool is the Subject Filter, which will break your search into more refined subcategories.
Sign in for Full Access (1:52): Use the My Account feature to save books or articles, manage material you have checked out, and request items we don’t have.
Access Content (2:05): Reviews the options for accessing content in Discover and for requesting items from the Automatic Retrieval Center (ARC).
Additional Search Tools (2:25): Covers some useful tools to help you manage your research including the “cited by” and “cited in” features as well as the permalink, citation template, bookmarking, and natural language searching.
Discover is one place to start your research, but it should not be the only place you look for sources. It only searches some of our library databases. We will learn more about the benefits of using databases in the next section.
