POLS-384: Strategies of Political Research

Quickly conduct either natural language or complex Boolean searches across the entire content collection you have selected. 

Basic Searching in Omni

The default search in Omni is a basic search. Enter one or more keywords into the Omni search box, choose the scope you wish to search (the scope is set to Queen's-only as a default), then click the search button. 

• basic search supports the use of Boolean operators: AND, OR or NOT,
• boolean operators must be entered in uppercase (e.g. race AND gender).
• to search for a specific phrase, place quotation marks around the phrase, otherwise AND is assumed between each word.  (example: "global warming").

Once you have your initial search results, you can fine-tune them by using the filters on the left side of the screen.

Advanced Searching

Use the advanced search option to obtain more precise search results.

• resource type will limit your search to a specific format or material type, such as book or ebooks
• drop-down options within the Advanced Search screen help you limit your search to specific fields and/or a combination of fields (author, title, subject, call number).
• specify how your search words must be reflected in the search field e.g. "contains", "starts with" or "is (exact)."  
• limit the results by date or language. 

From the Omni search page, select the "Journal Search" option near the top of the page and enter the title of the journal (or magazine or newspaper) in the search box. (To enlarge the screenshot, right-click on the image below and open in a new tab.)

Select the title of the journal from the list of results. From there you can access the full text (if the journal is online) or search inside for articles only from within the particular journal, directly from the record:

Omni offers a number of tools that help you organize, save, or cite your research. Examples include:

	Citation icon	Select one of ten different citation styles and generate a citation to the item
	Envelope icon	Email a record to the item
	Pushpin icon	Save this item to your list of favourites in Omni
	Citation trails	Lead to sources that cite the work or to references cited in the item
	Ellipsis icon	Shows action options including citation, email, permalink, export to citation managers and print record

Omni includes content from the various research databases to which Queen's University Library subscribes but not everything is included. If you are looking for information on a very specific topic, or a topic that is subject specific, it is recommended that you search databases that specialize in that subject area for more thorough results.

A link to database search is available from the library homepage or consult the relevant library research guide to determine the recommended databases in your discipline.