360 Search Help
What is 360 Search?
360 Search is a federated search engine for searching across your library's electronic resources from one simple interface.
360 Search provides citations and abstracts, as well as linking opportunities to full-text articles, electronic books, and records in your library's catalog. And you choose which resources you want it to search.
Search Tips
Use the Basic search page to simply enter what you're searching for and get results.
Use the Advanced search page for expanded searching options like a search type menu, the Year search limiter to enter a specific date, and advanced Boolean searching. You can search using the fields listed below:
| Title | The "title" field |
| Author | The "author" field |
| Full Text | For full-text content, if available |
| Keyword | The "keyword" field |
| Subject | The "subject" field |
| Abstract | The "abstract" field |
| ISSN | Exact ISSN |
| ISBN | Exact ISBN |
| Any | Usually works like a "keyword" search |
Try using Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) to find what you're looking for. Phrase searching works too! Put "quotation marks" around your search phrase to return more precise results.
With both the Basic and Advanced search options, you can choose specific resources to search. If you already know which resources you want to search, click on "Search by database" to choose from a list of available resources.
If you aren't sure where to begin but you know what subject area(s) you are interested in researching, click on "Search by subject" to choose from a list of subject categories.
Search Results
As 360 Search gathers your search results, you will see the resources at work. Within seconds, databases return results, and the search page will present live updates. You will see which resources have returned results first, and you can click on the number to view the results as the remaining databases continue searching.
If you see small triangles next to the provider names, you have the option to minimize that resource's information. Another click will reveal the information again.
When your results are returned, you can click on "Hide Summary" to hide the search summary and make more room for your actual results, or click on "Show Summary" to reveal the summary again.
Tool Box
Using the Search section of the Tool Box, you have the options to refine a current search, conduct a new search, and stop or resume a search in progress.
- Refine Search: This will take you back to your initial search query, where you can make adjustments and try the search again.
- New Search: This will bring you to a fresh search page, where you can enter a new query.
- Stop Searching: This link will appear while the search is in progress. Clicking this will pause or stop the search.
- Resume Search: You will see this link if you have stopped a search. Clicking this will continue the same search.
Use the Sort Results section to sort your search results by publication date, title, author, or source. If your results contain publication dates, they will be automatically sorted by date unless you choose another sort option.
Use the Filter section to filter your results down to "Full Text" (meaning they link to the entire content of the item).
Next Results
To get results to you as quickly as possible, results are returned in small batches. When you reach your final page of results you can click on the "Next Results" link to see the next batch of results from the providers.
You will be taken to the next page of results. The new set will be automatically appended to the original results set. Use the "merge" icon if you prefer to combine all results into one list. This sorts the list according to your selected sorting method -- by default, Date.
You may also retrieve more results from a favorite source by first clicking on the provider or database name and then clicking on "Next Results" on the last page. The next set of results for just that source is returned.
OpenURL Link Resolver Integration
Some of your results may not include a link to full-text content. If this is the case, a "More full-text options" or 360 Link link may be available to see if full-text is available in another database. If you can't find the full-text through any of these links, you should try searching in the library catalog or submitting an Interlibrary Loan request. Contact your librarian for more information.
If your library subscribes to 360 Link, or another OpenURL link resolver, the link will only appear on the results that have enough citation information: (Title OR ISSN) AND Volume AND Issue. It will not appear on every result.
Abstract Display
An abstract summarizes the content of a citation, so that you can get an idea of what the article will cover before actually jumping to it. Some search results will return with a link to these summaries. Clicking on this link will reveal the abstract, and another click will hide it again.
Deduplication
When a search finds duplicate results, you will see a "Duplicate Records" link. Only one record will be shown with a link to the others. When you click on the Duplicate Records link, you will see a new page with all of the duplicate results listed.
Export, Save, and Email
Above your results are links to email, export, or save selected results. To select records, use the checkboxes next to each result. Once results are selected, the "Email" and "Export/Save" links are activated.
Clicking on "selected records" link from the results page allows you to view only your selections in a new window.
Clicking on "Email" prompts you to fill out a form. On the form, you may choose to send your selected records in a format compatible with bibliographic citation managers like EndNote or ProCite, in plain text, or in HTML.
Clicking on "Export/Save" prompts you to fill out a similar form. You may choose to export your selected records directly to RefWorks, or to save the records either in a format compatible with bibliographic citation managers like EndNote or ProCite, as plain text, or as HTML.
Still Need Help?
Contact your librarian for help! Please visit your library's webpage or Reference Desk for additional assistance.
