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Research Guides

How to use LibrarySearch

A guide to using the University of Toronto Libraries’ search tool

Understanding search results

After entering your search terms and clicking the search button, you’ll see a list of results based on your criteria.

Search results

Notice that above the first result is a page number, the number of results on the current page, and the total results generated by your search. You can use this information to decide if your search needs to be narrowed or expanded.

The number of search results is indicated in green

Reading an item record

"Record" is the word that the library uses to describe each item in your set of results. 

Records are important because they provide basic information about each item including:

  1. Format
  2. Title
  3. Author
  4. Publication information
  5. Edition
  6. Excerpt from item description or abstract
  7. Access details: Online availability or physical location information

Each of these numbered elements are shown in the following image.

Record elements are numbered

Each record in your search results also provides access to a more detailed description of the record as well as additional tools you can use to share or save this information. To access the detailed source record, click on the thumbnail image or item title. If you want to share or save, click on one of the icons at the top right corner.

 Detailed source record, share, and save icons are indicated in green

Clicking on the item title will open a more detailed record as shown in the following image:

Full detailed record is show

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