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PolyU Library

Library Online Tutorial for BRE366

About Module 4

In this module, you will learn to:

  • Get full text of books and articles within and beyond PolyU Library

Get Full-text through Library

In most cases, the research materials you found online are not available for free. You might end up at a page asking you to pay for 30 USD to view the full text of just one article. This module shows you the steps of how to get full-text through the Library. As you may know, Library has subscribed hundreds of databases that contain millions of books, journals and other research materials. As a student, you can access all of them for free. 

Jump to specific part based on your needs:

Find Books

Find Articles & Journals

Find Other Materials in Databases
  • OneSearch
  • HKALL
  • OneSearch
  • Google Scholar
  • Databases
  • Inter-library Loan (ILL)
  • Find Standards
  • Find Statistics & Data
  • Find Theses & Dissertations

Note that for off-campus access to the subscribed e-resources, you will be asked to login with your NetID and NetPassword (see more at off-campus access to e-resources). 

Find Books

Find E-Books

The quickest way to find the full-text of books is through a direct search in OneSearch. You may search by Keywords, Title of the Book, Call Number, or an ISBN number. Follow the steps below:

  1. Go to OneSearch. Type in your keywords or title of the book and hit the search button.
  2. Limit results to "Books" under Resource Type on the right panel of the page. You may refine your results to "Full Text Online" so that only E-Books will be shown in the result list. "Physical items" will bring you print books only. Click on the book title to see more information about the book. 
  3. Sign in with your NetID and NetPassword.
  4. Click the full text option below to get access to the e-book. Note that some e-book platforms allow you to download the whole book in a PDF file, while some would only allow to read online or download a portion of the book everyday due to copyright restrictions.

In case you have chance to visit Library and borrow print books here, you can find the location of the book by its Call Number. Click "Location" to see which floor the book is located and find the book from the bookshelf. Check it out at Service Counter at P/F.

Request Print Books from another library

If you have chance to visit Library in person and need a book that's been checked out by others, here are the two ways to help you. 

Option 1. HKALL - faster

HKALL is a shared platform by 8 UGC-funded university libraries in Hong Kong. Eligible users can request a book from other libraries when the copy in PolyU is not available. The book will be then delivered to our Library in about 2-3 working days for pick-up. 

Option 2. Place a hold (wait in the queue)

Place a hold to reserve a book when the book is only available in our Library and there are no available copies from HKALL. After you place a hold, the previous user will be asked to return the book in about 28 days.

Follow the steps below to request a book from HKALL or reserve a local copy when HKALL does not apply.

  1. Click into the record of the checked-out book and sign in to the system if you haven't done so. 
  2. Click Request this item via HKALL. You will then be brought to the record page under HKALL.
  3. Click "Show/Hide HKALL Libraries".
  4. Click HKALL Request if there are available copies from other HKALL Libraries. If no available copies, you may place a hold from PolyU Library by clicking Request.
  5. Proceed to Request if there is no Volume number or Standard number to specify. You will be notified by email when the book is ready to pick up.

Find Articles & Journals

Find Articles

There are couple of ways to help you find articles: OneSearch, Google Scholar, or databases. Below shows the steps of finding an article in OneSearch. Refer to the other tabs to see how to access articles from Google Scholar and databases.

  1. Go to OneSearch. Type in your keywords or title of the article and hit the search button.
  2. Limit results to "Articles" under Resource Type on the right panel of the page. You may also refine results by publication year, full-text availability, etc. 
  3. Sign in with your NetID and NetPassword.
  4. Click the full text option below to view the article.

Find E-Journals

Most of our journals are in e-format. Below is a quick way to help you find a journal and browse its articles.

  1. Go to OneSearch. Click Journal A-Z.
  2. Type in the title of the journal and hit the search button. 
  3. Click on the journal title to access the journal. 

Find Articles

To get the full text of articles in Google Scholar, we suggest that you access Google Scholar via the Library homepage, especially when you are off campus. By doing this you will be able to directly access the full text of the articles through Library. Follow the steps below:

  1. Go to OneSearch. Switch to "Articles" and then click on Google Scholar@PolyU. Sign in with your NetID and NetPassword.
  2. Conduct a search in Google Scholar. The article within our collection will be provided with the "PolyU eLinks" option. Click to get the full text PDF for free.

 

Find Related Articles

When you found a very relevant article, you may click on "Cited by XX" or "Related articles" to find more similar articles. "Cited by XX" will bring you a list of citing articles - the articles that referenced the article you found. These articles were published after the article you found, and will show you more recent development on the similar topic.

Google Scholar setting - Link with PolyU Library

You may also change the setting in your Google Scholar to link it up with Library subscribed databases. This is identical to Google Scholar@PolyU.

Find Articles

As mentioned in Module 2, databases usually contain specialized materials. To look for journal articles, you may search in an article database. Below is an example of searching articles in one of the article databases:

  1. Access Web of Science through Library. You may do a search under "Databases" on Library homepage.
  2. Click Online Access to get in. Sign in with your NetID and NetPassword. 
  3. Search by keywords, or title of the article (if known). You may use "Add row" and build a more sophisticated search statement. The search techniques mentioned in Module 3 can also be applied here. "Search tips" will show you more tips in searching in Web of Science. 
  4. After building your search statement, click Search to proceed.
  5. Results will be shown based on your search query. Click into one article that you find relevent. 
    You may refine results by publication year, subject categories, etc. from the left-side menu bar. You may also sort results by publication date, Times Cited, etc. from the top.
  6. Click PolyU eLinks will direct you to the full text options through Library. 


Find Related Articles

When you found a very relevant article, how do you quickly find related articles based on this one? Follow the tips below.

  1. Go to the citation network on the right side panel.
    Click on "Times Cited" number will bring you a list of citing articles - the articles that referenced (or cited) the article you found. These articles were published after the article you found, and will show you more recent development on the similar topic.
    Click on "Cited Reference" number will bring you a list of articles shown in the reference list of the article you found. These articles were published before the article you found. 

 

Cannot find the article? Try ILL.

How to Place a Request:

  • Submitting requests directly via OneSearch without logon to a separate system
  • Tracking the status of the requests and downloading the requested articles or book chapters directly from myRecord
  • Submitting renewal requests directly from myRecord

Find Other Materials in Databases

Here are a few more examples to help you get access to other types of materials, e.g. standards, statistics, and theses & dissertations. 

  1. Go to IHS Engineering Workbench through Library. Type in Standard Code, title of the standard, or subject keyword and hit the search button. You may also click on relevant result that popped up to directly go to one standard document.
  2. Accept the license terms and you will be able to view the full text of the standard. Click download button on the top right corner to download the PDF. 
  3. If the document is currently viewing by another user, you may add it to your Watch List (click on the eye icon) and view it later. Click Watch List folder at the left-side menu bar to find all saved documents. 
  4. Go to "My Watch List" tab to find the saved standards and try again. 

Note: Please do not share the standard documents with others. Note that your name and the university's name will be auto added on the bottom of every page of each document you downloaded.

  1. Go to Statista through Library. Search a topic, or browse available statistics and reports by Industry. 
  2. Click into one dataset that you find relevant.
  3. You can then download the dataset as an image (PNG, PDF), in Excel (XLS) or even in PowerPoint (PPT).

Master and PhD theses are also good references when you start your capstone or final year project. The theses usually contain a chapter "Literature Review" where you can find many relevant literature on that topic. You can also learn how a thesis work is structured from these existing works.

  1. Go to PolyU Electronic Theses through Library. Type in a topic and hit the search button. 
  2. You may limit to theses by certain department, or degree. Click on any title in the result list and download the thesis in PDF.