What search tips can I use?

Try these tricks in the Library search tool. You can also use them in most academic information search tools:

Where to search

Choose any of these options from the search engine's drop-down menu:

The search box

All: all the contents available in the UOC Library, the O2 Repository and the recommended reading of the courses.
UOC and other libraries: get results from the UOC and from other Spanish and international libraries, including the Catalan University Union Catalogue.
Recommended reading: just the resources recommended by the University's teaching staff for further information on the courses.
Learning resources: search among the materials prepared by the UOC and used in the classrooms.
The O2 repository: consult contents prepared by the UOC community and available with open access. This may be, for example, final projects or scientific articles.
Catalan University Union Catalogue: broaden your search with the contents available in other Catalan university libraries. You can request books on loan or digital articles.

Filters

The filters will help you hone your searches. The main filters are:

Availability: choose the type of document which interests you according to the format (online or physical copy), whether it is open access or the quality (whether it is peer-reviewed).
Type of resource: choose the type of documents, books, articles, theses or videos.
Journal title: thanks to this filter you will see the articles from the publications which have the term searched for in the title.
UOC collection: Special series of content grouped by the UOC.
Subject: get results for a specific discipline.

To further finetune the results, you can select other filters such as the date or language.

The operators AND, OR and NOT (they must be written in capital letters) help you refine your results in the Library resources search engine. You can use these operators to combine the search terms and establish relationships between them.

In the Library search box, Boolean operators are used in English and in upper case.

How can I use them?

How can I refine my results even more? Combine the Boolean operators as often as you want to create personalized search formulas.

AND	OR	NOT
The results contain all the search terms.	The results contain at least one of the search terms.	The results exclude one of the search terms.
Travel AND Europe	College OR university	Mustang NOT animal
You'll get results about travelling in Europe.	You'll get results with college, university and both terms together.	You'll get results about the car and not about horses.

As in mathematics, you can use brackets to define the order in which the terms must be interpreted: the search engine reads first the words in brackets. For example, if you write your search as (children OR adolescents) AND learning, the search engine will first interpret that you only want information about children or adolescents and will then relate these results with learning.

Furthermore, if you want to search for results that contain a specific phrase, you can use inverted commas. For example: If you write "Olympic games", you will get results with the words "Olympic Games" in that order and together.

The asterisk (*) and question mark (?)

Asterisk and question mark are wildcard. If you use it next to the root of a word, you will recover results that include all its variations.

Entering cultur* will retrieve content with the terms culture, cultural and culturally.

If you enter subject: librar*, you will recover all the documents that contain library, libraries or librarians as subjects.

Quotation marks (" ")

Adding quotation marks (" ") at the beginning and end of a phrase or group of words retrieves results for exactly those words.

If you search for "borderline personality disorder", you will see only documents that contain this exact phrase.

If you enter “history teaching” in the search box, you will obtain results such as Teaching History.

Related questions

How to search for a journal or article in the Library
Type the keywords in the Library search engine. For example, "Neuropsychology". Click the Journals button in the search tool.

On the results page, use the filters on the left-hand side to refine the results. For example, turn on the Author or Creation Date filter.

Then, click on the Apply Filters button.

Review the search results and choose one. Click Available Online to access the journal.

If, on the other hand, you want to get more information, select the title of the journal to open a new page with additional information. If the same journal is in different collections that the Library has access to, a new page will open with additional information. Choose any of the options in the Available Online section to open it.

You can also take a look at the Journal Search list in the top menu of the search tool to consult the titles that the Library has access to in each subject area.

Search for articles within a journal

Search for the title of the journal in the search box. Click on the title and a new page will open with the journal information. In the Search inside section you will see a search bar. Type in the keywords of the article you need. The results you will get from this point on are only for articles published in that journal.

If you can't find the article in the Library's search engine, click on Extend your search to other libraries (at the top of the search engine) to see if other national and international libraries have it available to send to your email address within 24 working hours. We explain how you can do so.
I've installed the PressReader app and it asks me to make a payment to access the content. What should I do?
The Library subscribes to PressReader, and members of the UOC community can read its newspapers and magazines for free. If you are asked for a payment or you see messages like "Go Premium" or "See all purchase options", it's likely that you haven't signed in correctly.

Make sure to select Sign in > Library or Group and choose UOC from the list of libraries.

Follow these steps to sign out:

Go to More (in the bottom margin of the app).

Select Accounts.

Select the active PressReader account.

Then select Sign out (at the bottom of the list).

Now, sign back in by following these steps:

Open the app and tap Sign in (bottom of the home page).

Select Libraries & Groups, and then Select Library or Group.

Type UOC in the search window at the top of the list of libraries. Tap Esta publicación está suscrita por la Biblioteca de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

Then tap the Sign in button and enter your Virtual Campus username and password.

You will then be able to access all the content of PressReader through the app. A 30-day timer will appear. When it runs out, you will have to sign in again and search for the UOC Library in the list.
I have the PressReader app installed and I can't read or download content. What should I do?
First, make sure that you are properly signed in to the PressReader application.

If you aren't, you might see messages like "Go Premium" or "See all purchase options" when you try to read or download a publication. Remember that the UOC Library subscription gives you free access to the content.

Follow these steps to sign out:

Go to More (in the bottom margin of the app).

Select Accounts.

Select the active PressReader account.

Then select Sign out (at the bottom of the list).

Now, sign back in by following these steps:

Open the app and tap Sign in (bottom of the home page).

Select Libraries & Groups, and then Select Library or Group.

Type UOC in the search window at the top of the list of libraries. Tap Esta publicacion está suscrita por la Biblioteca de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

Then tap the Sign in button and enter your Virtual Campus username and password.

You will then be able to access all the content of PressReader through the app. A 30-day timer will appear. When it runs out, you will have to sign in again and search for the UOC Library in the list.
How do you download a newspaper or magazine on PressReader?
You can read the content online or download the entire issue and access it with the PressReader application (no internet connection needed).

Download the app and sign in as a user of the UOC Library. Follow these steps.

Download the PressReader app, available for iOS or Android.

Open it and tap Sign in (bottom of the home page).

Select Libraries & Groups, and then Select Library or Group.

Type UOC in the search window at the top of the list of libraries. Tap Esta publicación está suscrita por la Biblioteca de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Then tap the Sign in button and enter your Virtual Campus username and password.

You will then be able to access all the content of PressReader through the app. A 30-day timer will appear. When it runs out, you will have to sign in again and search for the UOC Library in the list.

Download content

There are two options for downloading an issue:

Using the web version of PressReader: From the UOC Library, enter the newspaper library, open a publication and click on Open this edition in the PressReader app. The platform will automatically detect the devices where you have the app installed. Just select one.

From the app itself: Open any publication and tap the download arrow icon.

In both cases, access downloaded issues with the app's My Library button (at the bottom of the home page).

When you open a newspaper or magazine from the app, you will see the Follow option. It means that, as soon as a new issue is available in PressReader, you'll find it among your downloads in the My Library section