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Lund University

E-huset: Subject Guide: Search tips

Welcome to E-huset subject guide! by librarians Lina Ahlgren & Ola Hedbäck

Information Management

Developing research skills

If you are doing more in-depth research for a major project or thesis, you should learn how to:

  • Develop a search strategy,
  • Evaluate resources,
  • Cite the resources you use, and
  • Use bibliographic management software, such as EndNote.

Additionally, you can book a research consultation with a librarian.

Search tips

When searching for books in the catalog, one way to do it is to select "Keyword (AND)" and to use these components: Keywords, the nouns that describe your topic. Boolean operators, (AND, OR). Quotation marks for phrase. Advanced Search tab for more options.

Here are some examples:

   "civil engineering"
   nanotechnology AND environment
   construction AND stress
   materials AND elasticity

Use reference works such asdictionaries, encyclopedias, orhandbooks, to quickly look up definitions, data, processes or equations, or to do some background reading on a topic.

Find reference works:

  1. Try a Keyword Search in the library catalogue such as:  "dictionary AND relevant keywords" or "encyclopediaAND relevant keywords" etc.
  2. However, not all online reference works are listed in the library catalogue, so use the online databases (listed below) or use LUBSearch.

Why choose a website?

 Many organizations publish their material directly to their website, so the internet can be a great source of information. However, use information from the web with caution. Since anyone could publish information on the internet, you must evaluate the source of the information to make sure it is authoritative.

Remember to always evaluate a website before using it for research purposes.

Some criteria for evaluating websites include:

  • Accuracy
  • Authority
  • Coverage
  • Currency
  • Objectivity
  • Purpose
  • Support

You can always ask a librarian or your professor for an opinion about a specific website.

Alerts and saved searches

TOC alerts

It is not possible from within LUBsearch to set up an alert of a journal's Table of Content (TOC). Instead you have to do this from the journal’s homepage.  Most journal´s provide both mail and RSS alerts. Search for journals in eJournals & eBooks A-Z.

 Saved searches in LUBsearch

To save a search you have to be logged in to your LUBsearch folder (to create a folder, click on “sign in” on top of the LUBsearch page and follow the instructions). Start with making a search. Go to “Search history”. Mark the search you want to save and click “save searches/alerts” Now you can find your saved search in the folder “saved searches”. If you want to repeat your search, just open the folder and choose “Retrieve Saved Search”.

Database Tutorials