Grad Student Research Toolkit

It is common to have a citation to a resource (article, book, etc.) and want to access the resource through the library. A citation is typically found in another article or book (in a footnote or bibliography), or it may be found in a database as the result of a search (see Finding Articles and Conference Proceedings on a Topic). While some databases include the full text of articles (look for a link labeled "Full Text" or "PDF" or "Download" or something similar), many databases are indexes that give citations of articles, but don't provide access to the articles.

This page gives a step by step procedure for accessing a resource from the library.

(This step only applies to citations found in databases. If your citation is from an article or book, skip to Step 3.)

If you found the citation in a database provided by the library, look for the "Find It@Tufts" button near the citation. If it exists, click on the button, and the database will communicate with the library's catalog and attempt to find the item. In many cases it will find the item and take you to it (or to a link that will give you access).

If this succeeds, you have the item and are done. If it fails, either the library doesn't have the item, or the communication between the database and the catalog failed for some reason (as often happens when two computer systems communicate). In that case, continue to follow the steps.

Databases will often have a link to the article on the publisher's website. This may have a label such as "Full Text at Publisher" or "Full Text" or "View at Publisher." Clicking on the link should take you to the page for the article on the publisher's site.

Unfortunately, publishers often put their articles behind paywalls, so you may not be able to access the article. It is still worth trying, since there are a couple of reasons the article may be available:

1. The article may be an Open Access article, freely available to anyone.
2. The library may have a subscription that includes the article, making it available to anyone affiliated with Tufts. Publishers usually verify Tufts affiliation by looking at the IP address of the browser. If you are on campus using the Tufts network, most publishers will recognize you as coming from Tufts and give you access if there is a subscription. If you are off campus, you can use Tufts' VPN to make it look like you are on campus.

If there is no link to the publisher, or the publisher's site requires a payment or asks you to log in to an account you don't have, proceed to the next step.

A citation typically includes the author (which is sometimes an institution), the article or book title, the title of the journal in which it was published (for articles), and publication information, including year published, volume/issue for articles, and publisher and location for books.

You can use this information to search for the item in JumboSearch, the library's catalog. As an initial search, use the book or article's title, along with the name of at least one author.

A few tips for the search:

1. In the results, pay attention to the Type of each result (above the title), such as Book, Article, Review, etc. When you are looking for a book, it's not unusual for the first result to be a review or article about the book.
2. If the title uses common words (and thus the search gives too many results), put quotation marks around the title. This will restrict results to those that use exactly those words in that order. However, if you do so your search may fail if the citation uses an abbreviation or other change in the title.

If you can find the item using JumboSearch, you're done.

If your search in JumboSearch fails, the next step depends upon whether you are looking for a book or article. If you are searching for a book, a failed JumboSearch means that the library doesn't have the book; skip to step 6 to see how you can request the book. However, if you are searching for an article, the fact that it can't be found by title in JumboSearch doesn't necessarily mean the library doesn't have it. Proceed to the next step.

Because not every article in journals available through the library is indexed in JumboSearch, it's possible for a search by article title to fail even though the library has the article.

The next step is to search in JumboSearch using the journal title. In the search results, look for the "Journals" type; you can also use the Resource Type refinement on the left of the results to limit to only journals.

If you find the library has the journal, take note of the availability dates in the record for the journal, and compare to the publication date in the citation. It is possible the library has access to some years of the journal, but not the year of the article. 

If the library has the journal for the year of the article, you can then follow the links and use the publication information from the citation to find the particular volume and issue of the journal (or find it on the shelf for print journals). You're done.

If the journal isn't in JumboSearch (or is, but not for the correct year), then the library doesn't have the article. But all is not lost! Proceed to the next step.

At this point, you have determined that the article isn't available through the library. However, it is still possible that it is freely available on the web. It may have been made open access; the author may have made the article available on their website, or put it into an institutional repository. 

Because of this possibility, it is worth searching on the open web using your favorite search engine. Again, use the title and author name, and try putting the title in quotes. This often doesn't work, but sometimes it does, and is easy enough to try. If it doesn't, proceed to the final step.

Just because the library doesn't have access to a book or article, it doesn't mean they can't get it for you.

You can request the book or article through interlibrary loan. The first time you do so, you will need to register with Illiad, Tufts' interlibrary loan system. In most cases the library will be able to find the item at a different library and get it to you. For articles or book chapters they can often get an online copy in just a few days; for books they will often get the physical book, which may take a bit longer.

Especially in the case of books, if it is an item that you think will be of more general interest to students and faculty at Tufts, you can recommend the library purchase it.

Finally, as with any library question, if you have a special case or need additional assistance, you can contact a librarian, who would be happy to assist you. Contact information for the engineering librarian is on the left, or you can email, chat, or call the library.