Getting Started With Discover
Accessing the full text of articles in Discover
There's a button for that!
You've found an article that looks relevant to your research! Now how do you get your hands on a full readable (full text) version of it? Discover provides a button offering options for accessing it beneath each article in the results list

and under the article title when viewing the full record

Those locations for the button are always the same, but the button name and behavior may vary. Here are the most common variations and how they work . . .
Link to buttons (the name of the database linked to may vary) will take you directly to an electronic version of the article.
PDF Full Text buttons open a PDF file of the article.
Access options buttons usually appear when there's both a PDF and an HTML version of an article available - click to view and select the format you prefer and be taken to that electronic version of the article.
MHC | Get It! buttons will appear when there are multiple online or print options for accessing an article or if it's necessary to request the article from another library. More on MHC | Get It below!
MHC | Get It!
When clicked on, the MHC | Get It! button takes you to a Get It page that will show you one or more of the following options for accessing a full text version of the article:
- Online Availability - The article is available through another database and clicking on the link to it will take you there
- Physical copies at the MHC library - The library has this title in print, but check the dates available to make sure they cover the year the article was published
- Request item from another library - Even if there are no online or physical copies at the library, you can use this option's Link to Request Form to request a PDF copy of the article from another library (it's fast and free!)
- Questions or problems - Got a question about the result your seeing or found a broken link on the Get It page? Use the links provided to contact a librarian or report a broken link!

Using Journal Locator
If you aren't looking for a specific article but would like to know if the library has access to a journal, magazine, or newspaper title so you can browse it, searching the library's Journal Locator is the best way to find out. You can access it from the library home page by clicking on the Research menu and selecting "Journal locator":

Search on the title of the journal, magazine, or newspaper you'd like to read. If the title you search does turn up in Journal Locator, the result will tell you if the library has the publication in print (1) and/or online (2) and, in each case, for what years:

Recent issues of print journals can be found on library Level 4 just off the Reading Room, and back issues can be found on library Level 2 1/2 (see the library Floor map and stack locations page for help locating those places). Print journals are shelved alphabetically by title.
Journals available electronically appear in the Journal Locator results as links to the databases that they can be found in (ProQuest Central, Academic Search Premier, and Gale Academic OneFile in the example above). Click on the database link to go to the online version of the journal.
- Last Updated: Jul 29, 2025 3:52 PM
- URL: https://guides.mtholyoke.edu/gettingstarted
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