The search box on the library homepage under Search for Articles, Books, and More takes you to our search engine, called Omni. Omni is a gateway to our resources and helps you locate books that Western Libraries has in its collection, plus online journals and newspaper articles pulled from its database holdings. This is a great place to start your research, because you will find a large number of resources on your topic. Try searching specialized databases when you have narrowed your topic.
To narrow down your search in OMNI, use the filters on the left side of the page. You can refine your search to only include online resources, print resources, online journal articles, ebooks, encyclopedias, and more. You can also refine your search to a specific publication date range or language.
There are a wide variety of databases available through Western Libraries. To find the databases most relevant to your topic, check the research guide for your subject.
To properly search a database, use synonyms and Boolean operators to retrieve more relevant results. Watch this video about Putting Together your Search Terms to learn about searching.
Use the advanced search option if available. This enables you to use more relevant search terms and narrow down your search.
