Tutorial Improving your list of results in EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) support.ebsco.com

EBSCO Discovery Service offers a wealth of content from a variety of sources.

When searching there will be times a search retrieves too many records to review. Or, if you are using a specific set of terms, the search may not return enough results to meet your needs. In this video we will highlight how to improve your search results using the limiters, expanders, and facets available to you.

View your current selections in the Current Search box. Limiters added to your search will display here. Clicking on the X icon removes the condition from Current Search and refreshes your search results.

Begin to refine your results by noting that the Full Text limiter allows you to limit to items that are available online. This is helpful if you need access to the item quickly, but may filter out items available offline through your library. To limit your results to only resources available at your library select the Available in Library Collection limiter. If you are primarily looking for information that is scholarly in nature, select the Scholarly Journals limiter, which includes Peer Reviewed items. The Publication Date limiter can be helpful in limiting results to show only recent items or items from a specific timeframe.

Facets appear in the left column of the result list and can be used to narrow in on a specific set of records. Available facets vary by library, but source types, subjects, publication and publisher are typically available and valuable in improving your results.

To view results from only from a specific source type click at least one Source Type to update your results. Source type options include magazines, newspapers, reviews, conference papers and reports, but again vary based on a specific library’s collection.

When you have a very broad topic, such as global warming, the Subjects facet can help you narrow a your results by searching for terms commonly used to describe similar records. This will help you focus your research, and when used with the Publication Date limiter, can provide information on which topics are currently popular in the research literature.

The Publication list provides an overview of the key journals, magazines or other source types in your topic area and allows you to quickly filter your results to one or more publications.

If the Publication facet is too specific, or if you are not familiar enough with the publications listed, you may find that limiting by Publisher is useful. The Publisher facet allows you to see all of the included journals, magazines or other sources that are provided by one or more specific publisher(s). Publishers often release more than one title in a given subject area so you will get more results over narrowing to a specific title.

As you update your results and change the parameters, you may view your search history by clicking the Search History link below the search box. This allows you to select, and even modify, a previous search.

At any time, click the Help link to view the complete online Help system.