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EGIS (Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society): Using Discovery to Search for Books

Using Discovery to search for...

Let's assume the following book and book chapter are on your reading list:

  • Greed, C. (1996) Introducing Town Planning. 2nd ed. Harlow: Longman

  • Fishman, R. (2015) 'Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier', in Fainstein, S. S. and Defilippis, J. (eds.) Readings in Planning Theory. 4th edn. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 33-59

For the first example, search for:

["introducing town planning" greed] 

For the second example, search for:

[fainstein "readings in planning theory"]
– i.e. the book title, not the chapter title and the book editor, not the chapter author

You can search by general keyword, e.g. entering [civil eng*] would find all resources with civil engineering/engineers etc in the title, keywords or author.

N.B. the * is used to truncate words, so eng* finds resources with engineers, engineering, engineered etc in the title, keywords or author.

Think carefully about your keywords.  See also:

keywords/literature searching

Limiting your Discovery search to only books

​​Discovery  cross searches many different types of resources.  Use the limiters on the left hand side of the screen to narrow your results.

To limit your results to only books:

  • Under 'Resource Type', select 'Books':

THEN

To limit your search to only eBooks:

  • Under 'Show Only', select 'Full Text Online'

OR

To Limit your search to print books at your campus Library:

  • Under 'Library', select your campus Library

How do I know if the item I want is available in print or online?

Discovery searches for both print and eBooks. 

  • Print books show an ‘Available from’ link with a classmark e.g. 338.47624 OFO
  • eBooks show a ‘Full text available’ link

Off-campus access

When off-campus, you will be prompted for your Heriot-Watt username/password.  For help with usernames/passwords, see:

Borrowing from HWU campus libraries

Borrowing is available if you are within traveling distance form the library (i.e. you can collect and return books).  We do not offer a postal service.

Help with using Discovery

Videos

Note, these videos refer to 'Vision', which is now called 'Canvas'.

Handouts (PDF)

SkillsHub