Library search is the best place to start your assessment research. Use it to find books, articles, videos, databases and more.
What does it search?
Physical items found in the library, such as books, DVDs and kits
Online resources that the library subscribes to, such as ebooks, ejournals, articles, encyclopaedias and databases
Curated collections held by the library
ACU past exam papers
What doesn’t it search?
It can’t see inside some of our databases. For in-depth research we recommend using our specialist subject databases.
Searching when you know the item
Enter some words from the title and/or author into the search box.
Copying and pasting an entire citation with punctuation can make it harder to find what you want.
Tip! For book chapters, enter the title of the book itself, not the chapter.
Tip! If you can’t find the article, try finding the journal by title in Journal search. For example Journal of Religious Education. You can then browse to the appropriate year, volume and issue number to find your article.
Searching for a topic or concept
Library search works best if you keep things simple. Start by entering just the keywords for your topic.
Library search will:
automatically combine your keywords using AND – for example, if you type the words emergency nursing, it will search for books/articles that mention both the words emergency AND nursing in any order
search for a phrase if you enclose the words in inverted commas – for example, "emergency nursing" will find the words together and in that order
More advanced users can use the following search techniques to search smarter
wom?n – searches for woman OR women
cultur* – searches for culture, cultural, culturally and so forth
cats NOT (Burmese OR Siamese) – searches for all types of cats except Burmese and Siamese
Shakespeare (tragedy OR sonnet) – searches for tragedies or sonnets by Shakespeare
Search results
Results are ranked by relevance, so the most relevant books/articles should appear first. You can then refine your results on left-hand side of the screen to:
show only certain items – for example, only articles, peer reviewed (or scholarly) journals, and online resources
limit by date, campus, resource type.
Details about availability and accessibility for each item include:
Available – Print book that is on the shelf for loan. Click on Available to find the campus location it is at
Not available – Print book is on loan to someone. Place a request to reserve the book for yourself when it is returned
Access online – Electronic resource. Click Access online to view it
See all versions – More than one edition and/or format held; could be print and/or electronic.
Library search tips video
Learn how to customise your search and lock in your preferences.
