Associate Professor and Head, HSL Research and Education Services

It’s here! After months of behind-the-scenes work, the OhioLINK network has gone live with a new library system platform for all OhioLINK members, including The Ohio State University.

An exciting new feature of this system is Libraries Search, a one-stop searching experience allowing users to locate articles, books, streaming media and more within a single search. You can begin your Libraries Search session from the Ohio State Health Sciences Library (HSL) homepage.

You can also expand your search to all OhioLINK libraries, allowing students, faculty and staff an easy way to see and request items from around the state. Information from Libraries Search can be exported to citation management software such as RefWorks, EndNote and Zotero, making your research process a little bit easier.

If you sign into Libraries Search, you can create favorites, search alerts and save searches for later; logged-in users can also personalize their results to more closely meet their discipline.

Searching Tips

As a member of the Ohio State community, you have access to a vast array of resources; you may find your initial search overwhelming. Once you are in the Libraries Search interface, you can narrow your search by selecting one of the options underneath the search bar to limit your search to books or journal articles.

But you may also realize that you are not finding enough information, in which case you can select the option underneath the search box to expand your search. You will then retrieve results from other OhioLINK libraries and can request an item be sent to your library at Ohio State.

If you know exactly what you need, you can take advantage of the Advanced Search Option, allowing you to search by title, author, ISBN and more; you can also limit by language and resource type.

But what if I really just want a database?

Never fear! Our top Health Sciences databases are still linked on the HSL homepage, and these provide direct access to your favorite resources. You have multiple paths to take to the resources you need by visiting Subject Guides specific to your discipline or area of research.

Expect the unexpected

Migrating to a new library system is a big change, asking us to learn new ways of searching for information. This can be a frustrating process, as sometimes our new ways of searching aren’t immediately successful. But it can also be exciting as we find resources we may not have seen before and connect ourselves more easily with resources from across OhioLINK. 

If you have links from our old system bookmarked, double check that they are redirecting to the correct location; you may also want to check permalinks included in CarmenCanvas or other course materials to ensure students have seamless access to the information they need. 

Questions? Please email the Health Sciences Library for help.