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Online Students Use of the Library

This guide is intended for students who are using the library online to help guide the experience and make the library website easier to understand and use!

LionSearch Basics

For full text items, click the "full text online" link to go to the full text of the article.

  • If you see the Penn State "GetIt" menu and you need to click the word "article" to get to the full text. 
  • If there is no "article" link, click the word "journal" to get to the journal page and look for the correct year, volume, issue and pages for the article you need.
Tip: Save the relevant sources into the LionSearch temporary folder by clicking on the small folder icon to right side of the item.  When you are finished compiling your sources, click on the folder icon at the top of the screen and email or print (which allows you to copy into your clipboard) the references so you can easily add them to your project. 
 
CAVEAT: computer systems make mistakes when auto-formatting.  
Don’t lose your work!  Unless you sign up for Refworks, items are saved in LionSearch ONLY for your current session.  You won’t be able to go back later and see a list of saved items.

Scholarly Articles in LionSearch

Refining your search to peer-review

Article Search Tips

Finding the best articles on your topic requires these steps.

  • Select an appropriate database.
  • Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic
  • Scan the best items on the results list and look for new subject terms or keywords. Then revise your search using these new terms.
  • Save the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers.  This is all part of the "citation". 
  • Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases) for more information.