eresources:
what’s in it for me?
Contents
Where to start?
eresources
Why use journal articles?
Finding journal articles
Quest – the cross-search tool
Searching for a specific article
Online Image Collection: Scran
General tips for using and searching eresources
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Where to start?
You can access all the electronic resources (eresources) Cumbria subscribe to
via the University webpages.
1. Select Current students from the University of Cumbria homepage
2. Under Libraries and Learning there are links to eresources.
This booklet will take you through searching via Quest, journals
collections such as Academic Search Complete, and the Journal A–Z
list (ebooks are covered in The library: what’s in it for me?)
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eresources
LiSS subscribe to ebooks, newspapers, journals, journal collections (also
sometimes termed databases) and image collections.
When you search via Quest or when
you search from off campus you will
be asked to enter your Cumbria
username and password
Please note – if you see a login box like the one below select the Login through
your institution or Shibboleth link, follow the instructions and enter your
Cumbria username and password.
Cumbria do not use Athens authentication.
Why use journal articles?
Using academic journal articles is essential in university assignments because
academic journals:
Contain articles relating to current ideas and practice
Report on original research
Have articles written by scholars in the field
Finding journal articles
The easiest way to find articles on a new topic is to search using Quest, the
university’s cross-search tool. You can also search within a specific online
journal collection (database). Some useful online collections include:
Academic Search Complete
CINAHL
Education Research Complete
JSTOR
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Quest – the cross-search tool
LiSS have a cross-search tool called Quest.
Quest searches all the university’s journal collections and the library catalogue.
1. From the Current students page select Quest discovery service
2. Follow the Click here to access Quest link
(helpful support materials are available on this page)
3. Enter your university username and password and click LOGIN
4. Enter search terms; like Google, Quest will automatically put AND
between search terms.
5. Or preferably select the Advanced Search link
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6. Using an Advanced Search you can build your search and limit your
results to:

Full Text (Online)
 Peer Reviewed Journals
7. Once you have a list of results you can continue to limit your results by:
Publication Date.
For example, you might want to limit your results to those published in
the last ten years
8. Geographical location.
Tick checkbox next to a location then Update.
This will limit results to those from a specific location
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9. Subject; Tick checkbox next to a subject then Update. Selected subjects
will be added to your original search terms
10. Content Provider; If you have far too many results you can limit them
by content provider or journal collection
11.Click on the x icon to remove any of the limiters
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12. When you find a useful article click on the blue hypertext title for more
information or click on PDF Full Text for access to the whole article
13.The article can be saved, printed or emailed from the PDF format
14.You will see the LINKED ‘Full Text link’ or ‘Check if we have this journal’
link when an article is in a collection not indexed in Quest. Try this link
and if you have any problems please contact us at: skills@cumbria.ac.uk
Searching for a specific article
If you have an article reference for example,
Hammersley-Fletcher, L., Orsmond, P. (2005) Reflecting on reflective practice
within peer observation. Studies in Higher Education, 30(2), pp.213-224.
1. Enter author’s name in the first search box and select the AU Author
field from the drop down menu
2. Enter some key words from the article title in the second search box and
select TI Title from the drop down menu
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3. Click Search and (if Cumbria subscribe to the Journal) …
4. …the article should appear. Click on PDF Full Text to access the article
Accessing via Linked full text
1. This is an example of an article from a journal that is not indexed in
Quest but it can be accessed via the Linked Full Text link
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2. Click on Download full text to read, save or print the article
Alternatively, you can go directly to a specific journal title (see below)
1. From the Current students page select Journals
2. Click on the Journals A to Z quicklink
3. Enter some key words from the journal title and click Search
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4. If Cumbria subscribe to the Journal the title should appear.Click on the
name of the journal provider hyperlink; in this case Taylor & Francis
5. Click on the appropriate volume hyperlink to open
6. Click on the appropriate Full Text hyperlink to access the article
If you have any problems accessing academic articles please contact the library
and information skills team at skills@cumbria.ac.uk
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Online Image Collection: Scran
Scran is a collection of copyright-cleared images, movies and sounds to use in
your assignments, PowerPoint presentations or in the classroom.
1. From the Current students page select Eresources
2. Click on the S and select the blue link to access Scran. Enter your
university username and password to access from off campus
3. Follow the Learning Sectors links or Enter search term
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4. When you find an image to use click Open until it is no longer available as
an option.
5. Right click your mouse, select Save Image As and save the picture to a
convenient place
6. OR select Create and OK
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7. You can make particular resources featuring your image
8. You can compile your own portfolio of images to use in classroom
resources, posters or PowerPoint slides. Just register into My Stuff in
order to save pictures or text into your scrapbook
General tips for using and searching eresources
Before you start
 Think carefully about your topic and write down key words and phrases
which describe it, or reflect different aspects of it
 Choose your eresources
 Have a look at the library’s complete list of journal collections to identify
those which look promising for your research topic
Searching
 It is unlikely that a single term will retrieve everything available on a
particular subject. You need to thinks of synonyms, broader and narrower
terms, and singular and plural terms, and try them in turn
 Avoid searching very general terms on their own, eg teaching. You will
retrieve far more than you can scan, and much of it will be irrelevant
 Use the search tools which all eresources provide to make your search more
focused and powerful
Search Tools
Nearly all eresources provide search tools of some kind to make it easier for
users to retrieve helpful results when keyword searching. The following are the
most frequently offered, but using the Help function in whichever resource you
are searching will give you much fuller information about constructing complex
searches
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Boolean (or Logical) Operators
Boolean or logical searching involves the use of AND and OR to define the
relationships between words

The use of AND will narrow a search to make it more specific: the records
retrieved must contain both search words.
For example study AND skills
Results
AND

The use of OR will widen a search: the records retrieved may contain either
or both search words.
For example primary OR key stage 2
OR
Truncation or Wild Cards
 Truncation symbols, or wild cards, are used to replace one or more letters in
order to retrieve different forms of a search word. The symbols used are
usually ? or *, for example child* would retrieve child, children as well as
childrens
 Truncation can also be helpful where there are variant spellings of a word,
for example wom?n would retrieve woman or women
Phrases
Many eresources will automatically search two consecutive words as though they
were joined by the Boolean operator AND, and will therefore return records in
which both the words appear, but separated rather than as a phrase. If you wish
to search a phrase, you can usually enclose the words in quotation marks, eg
“every child matters”
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Need more help?
This is a very basic introduction to eresources. If you have any problems don’t
struggle or give up, contact your local service desk to make an appointment
with a member of staff or contact us directly.
If you need help with account management, passwords, general IT and
media support
Telephone 01228 888888 or email ITservicedesk@cumbria.ac.uk
If you would like any further help with anything covered in this guide
please email skills@cumbria.ac.uk
If you would like this booklet in a different format please ask in the
library.
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