Multi-Search: Search Multiple Databases

Home » Services » Computing in the Library

Multi-Search is a federated search engine for searching across many of the Library's electronic resources from one simple interface. Multi-Search provides citations and abstracts, as well as linking opportunities to full-text articles, electronic books, and records held by the Portland State Library.

If you have questions or need assistance, please Ask Us or call the Library's Reference Desk at 503.725.5874.

Multi-Search Tips

Use the Basic search page to simply enter what you're searching for and get results.

Use the Advanced search page for expanded searching options like a search type menu, the Year search limiter to enter a specific date, and advanced Boolean searching. You can search using the fields listed below:

Search Type	What does it search?
Any	Works like a "keyword" search
Title	The "title" field
Author	The "author" field
Full Text	For full-text content, if available
Keyword	The "keyword" field only
Subject	The "subject" field only
Abstract	The "abstract" field
ISSN	Exact ISSN
ISBN	Exact ISBN

Try using Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) to find what you're looking for. Phrase searching works too! Put "quotation marks" around your search phrase to return more precise results.

With both the Basic and Advanced search options, you can choose specific resources to search. If you already know which resources you want to search, click on "Search by database" to choose from a list of available resources.

If you aren't sure where to begin but you know what subject area(s) you are interested in researching, click on "Search by subject" to choose from a list of subject categories.

Search Results

Results by Source: As Multi-Search gathers your search results, you will see the resources at work. Within seconds, the databases will begin returning results, and the search page will present live updates. You will see which resources have returned results first, and you can click on the numbers in the Results by Sources box to view the results as the remaining databases continue searching.

Clustered Results: When your results are returned, the system will cluster your results by Topics, Date, Journals, and Authors. Click on the tabs to change views. Click on the numbers within the Clustered Results box to view your results grouped into specific clusters.

Tool Box

Using the Search section of the Tool Box, you have the options to refine a current search, conduct a new search, and stop or resume a search in progress.

Refine Search: This will take you back to your initial search query, where you can make adjustments and try the search again.
New Search: This will bring you to a fresh search page, where you can enter a new query.
Stop Searching: This link will appear while the search is in progress. Clicking this will pause or stop the search.
Resume Search: You will see this link if you have stopped a search. Clicking this will continue the same search.

Get More Results

To speed up the search process, Multi-Search returns your results in small batches. When you click on the Get More Results link, the search will run again and get the next batch of results from the providers. You will be taken to the first page of results again, this time with more results available for browsing.

"Find it @ PSU" Links

Some of your results may not include a link to full-text content. If this is the case, a "Find it @ PSU" link may be available to see if full text is accessible in another database. The "Find it @ PSU" link will not appear on all results. If you can't find the full text through any of these links, you should try searching in the Library Catalog or submitting an Interlibrary Loan request.

(Note: The "Find it @ PSU" link only appears on the results that have enough citation information: Title or ISSN and Volume and Issue.)

Abstract Display

An abstract summarizes the content of a citation, so that you can get an idea of what the article will cover before actually jumping to it. Some search results will return with a link to these summaries. Clicking on this link will reveal the abstract, and another click will hide it again.

Deduplication

When a search finds duplicate results, you will see a "Duplicate Records" link. Only one record will be shown with a link to the others. When you click on the Duplicate Records link, you will see a new page with all of the duplicate results listed.

Export Records

If your search was successful and you want to save your results, click on the "Export Records" link in the Results Header. After clicking on the Export Records link, another browser window opens with a list of the search results. You can then select the records you want to export. You can save or print the exported records after choosing the format and clicking on the Export Records button.

* Printing the HTML-formatted records is not recommended, because you will not be able to view the URLs for each result. If you would like to print the exported records, choose the Plain text option.

Still Need Help?

If you need assistance with Multi-Search or any other research task, please Ask us! or call the Portland State Library at 503.725.5874.