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Which Search is Right For You?

There are various ways to search for UW licensed resources from the UW-Madison Libraries’ homepage.

Searching for Items in Our Campus Libraries – Library Catalog

  • The default search is for the library catalog. This catalog includes items we have in our libraries like: books, journals, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, and video games. It also gives access to e-books and online journals. **It is important to note that this catalog search will not find individual articles.
  • The library catalog automatically searches the UW System catalog. If you wish to search only items held by UW-Madison select “Limit to UW-Madison resources” from the scope dropdown on the catalog’s main search page. Or on the advanced search page you can select “switch to search UW-Madsion.”
  • You can search for rare items that the UW System does not have, by choosing the “WorldCat” link below the catalog search box on the home page of the library website. From there you can use the Interlibrary Loan option to request that an item to be sent to one of the UW-Madison Libraries.

Searching Millions of Articles at One Time – Article Search

  • You can search millions of articles at the same time by choosing Articles from the dropdown menu. This may be sufficient for some topics, but if you are completing an in-depth, subject specific search or need many scholarly articles, we suggest selecting Databases from the drop down menu.

Searching for Articles in Databases – Database Library

  • You can find specific databases in which to search for articles by choosing Databases from the dropdown menu. **Some databases include reports, data, images, standards, or other electronic resources as specified by the particular database.
  • To search for a specific database, type the database name into the search box. Click on any individual database title to search that database.
  • If you don’t know which database you’d like to use, try one of the links below the search box:
    • Use the Introductory Databases link, to find one introductory article database to search for each subject or field of study. Using sources from various subjects can lead you to different perspectives on your topic.
    • Use the Browse by Subject/Type link, to first find a subject or field of study that matches your topic or area of research. Each subject link will then lead you to a list of databases with resources related to that subject.

Searching for Articles within Journals – Journals

  • You can find individual journals or articles within journals by selecting the Journals tab from the drop down menu.
  • To find a specific journal, type the exact journal title into the search box.
  • There are a few ways to find a specific article:
    • Type the journal title in the search box and then navigate or search for the specific article from there.
    • If you have the DOI, click on the Citation Search link on the bottom of the search box and then enter the number into the DOI search box.
    • If you have the PMID (PubMed ID), click on Citation Search link on the bottom of the search box and then enter the number into the PMID Search box.