Simple search
Enter your search term in the search field of the Web portal e-lib.ch. By pressing the enter key or by clicking on the magnifying glass icon the search will be started. If you enter more than one word, the search will look for results containing all the terms (linked with AND):
Your search will be placed under the first tab "Books, journals, images...". You will see the two tabs as soon as the results list is displayed:
The two tabs comprise these data sources:
1st Tab "Books, journals, images, videos …"
Search in NEBIS, in e-codices.ch, in ETH E-Collection, in digitized journals on the retro.seals.ch platform, and in Bildarchiv Online of the ETH-Bibliothek.
2nd
Tab www.e-lib.ch
Search the entire content of the Web portal e-lib.ch website.
Sort result
The default is to sort results by relevance. You can sort them also by date, by creator and by title.
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Narrow search
The right-hand column beside the results list suggests terms you can use to narrow your search:
For example, use "Image" to limit your search to images.
To remove this restriction, click on the X.
To narrow down your results on to a single source, use the Facet "Collection".
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Search for a phrase
If you want to search for a phrase (group of words), put quotation marks around it. You can combine phrases and words in one search query:
The results show documents containing both the term "climate change" and the aspect "impact".
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Using Boolean operators
You can use the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT in your search. They must be written in upper case .
Important: where no operators are used, search terms are automatically linked with AND.
AND
All search terms linked with AND must be present in the results. AND allows you to limit the number of results.
The results show documents containing all three terms: "global", "climate" and "change".
The following search will produce the same result:
OR
At least one of the search terms linked with OR must be present in the results. OR allows you to expand the number of results.
The results show documents containing the phrases "climate change" or "global warming" or both.
NOT
Search terms excluded with NOT will not be shown in the results. NOT therefore allows you to exclude specific words or phrases.
The results show documents containing the phrase "climate change" but not "global warming".
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Wildcards
Your search can include the wildcards ? and *:
? wildcard substitutes a single character:
Searches for woman, women, etc.
* wildcard substitutes no or several characters:
Searches for culture, cultures, cultural, etc.
* can also help to find different spellings:
Searches for behaviour, behavior, etc
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Grouping search terms
You can use brackets to group search terms within a query.
Searches for "shakespeare" and also for "tragedy" or "sonnet".
For more complex searches you can also use the Advanced search.
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Advanced search
The individual search fields of the Advanced search are linked with AND. You can use phrases, Boolean operators, wildcards and grouping with brackets in all the search fields in exactly the same way as in the Simple search.
Searches for "Jones" as the creator and for "wheat" or "triticum". The search is additionally limited to the resource type "Books" and the language "English".
By using the centre field of the three search lines you can specify whether the search terms are to be searched for in any specific order or as a phrase.
For example, this search will also find "Journal of the American Society of Agronomy".
This search will show only results with titles containing the words "journal of agronomy" (in that order), e.g. "European journal of agronomy".
In the field title you can also specify the beginning of a title.
This search will show all titles that start with "journal of agronomy", e.g. "Journal of agronomy and crop science".
The "Search Scope" field can be used to limit the search to a single source/collection:
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Using resources and requesting
Access to the document and more information is provided via tabs:
Tab "Online resource"
The "Online resource" tab opens either a connecting window (SFX) or leads directly to the document. Access to an online resource, however, may be denied because of licensing reasons. The information whether an institution provides access or not, can be found in the library catalog: Select the tab "Details & Request" and follow the link "This item in the Library Catalog".
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Tab"Details & Request
This tab provides more information about the document. The link "Request" leads to the library catalog, where the document (print or non-book resource) can be requested.
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Sign in / Sign out
Sign into the Web portal e-lib.ch to use the personalisation features (e-Shelf and language settings).
As a guest your e-Shelf and language settings are only saved for the current browser session.
Important: Sign out after finishing your session to protect your e-Shelf and your account from being used by others.
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Language settings
If you have signed into the Web portal e-lib.ch, the selected language will be saved.
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e-Shelf
Mark titles in the result page in order to manage them in the e-Shelf:
If you have signed into the Web portal e-lib.ch, marked titles are saved in the e-Shelf and you can organise them in folders.
As a guest, however, the titles are only saved for the current browser session.
Save queries
If you have signed into the Web portal e-lib.ch, you can save queries (at the bottom of the column at the right).
You can access your saved queries in the e-Shelf in the "Queries" tab and run them again from there.
