Getting Started With Discover
What are filters and why use them?
Filters allow you to refine your search results to the items most useful for your information needs in several ways. For example, if you have an assignment for which you're only allowed to use sources published in a specific date range, filters can help you do that. Or if you looking for sources for a Spanish class, you can change the language to include only sources in Spanish. You can even limit the results to only include those that have the Full Text online so you can guarantee you'll be able to read them anywhere.
How to apply Discover filters
After running a search in Discover, you'll notice that a few select filter options/buttons appear beneath search box:
These allow you to quickly limit your results to
- Full Text Online
- Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals (meaning articles that appear in scholarly journals)
- All time (meaning all publication dates, or click on this button to select Past 12 months, Past 5 years, or Past 10 years)
- Source Type (click the button to choose from a list of source types like Academic journals, Books, Magazines, News, etc.)
Clicking All filters opens a menu showing an extended list of all of the filters available in Discover. To use these, 1 select the filter or multiple filters that best meet your research needs then 2 click on the Apply button to make them to take effect:
The full list of filter options includes the following:
- Published Date (allows you to enter a custom date range)
- Content provider (allows you to filter your results by the databases they were found in)
- Library Location (filter your results by which Five College library owns them)
- Subject (filter by subject headings used to describe results)
- Publication Title (filter by journal title - works for articles)
- Language
How to clear Discover filters - or make them sticky
Clearing filters
To any clear filters you have selected, first click on All filters to reopen the filters menu.
You can remove individual filters one at a time by clicking each that appears in the Active filters 1 section of the menu or all at once by clicking on Clear All 2 at the bottom of the menu. In both cases, click on Apply 3 to make your changes take effect:
Making filters "sticky" - or not
You can also use the All filters menu to choose whether or not to make filters stick (stay in effect) in subsequent searches or only your current search.
By default, Discover's filters are set to stick, but you can turn that off by 1 clicking on the lock icon in the Active Filters section, 2 selecting Remove filters between searches, and 3 clicking Apply:
