Discovery - Search Tips

Discovery is the University of Erfurt's search portal for comprehensive literature research.

Discovery systems are modern search engines in libraries. Under one search interface a library’s stock of literature and other media, articles and full texts from licensed databases and journal portals as well as free electronic texts can be found.

A discovery system is as easy and intuitive to use as Google and literally promotes one thing above all else: the discovery of knowledge and information.

"Discovery" is:

  • easy access to printed and electronic resources
  • through responsive web design ideal for mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones
  • with integrated user account management

The basic database for the Discovery system is the K10plus Central. This index contains our holdings as well as those of 400 other libraries of the Common Library Network (GBV). In addition, it currently contains more than 57 million articles and more than 34 million electronic resources.

We look forward to your feedback! Write an e-mail or use our online form.

Basics

Search terms
Enter one or more terms in the search slot. The "Autocomplete" function supports you in selecting the search terms.

Narrowing down the search result
Period, type, format By means of a slider or by manually entering the desired years, the result can be narrowed down to a selected period. By activating the desired checkboxes, the search result can be narrowed down to a specific publication type (e.g. electronic) and to selected media formats (e.g. book).

Search queries and search result
Confirm search queries by clicking the search button. The entered terms are searched simultaneously in all fields of the title description (person, title keyword, keyword etc.). By default, the search result is sorted by relevance ranking, the highest possible match of the search query with the available data. It is possible to change the sorting by year of publication.

Access to Licensed Electronic Resources
For a variety of electronic resources, the library offers access to the electronic full text. Follow the links provided. Access to licensed electronic resources (e-books, e-journals, e-articles) from outside is possiblefor members of the University of Erfurt, especially for students and employees via Shibboleth or VPN.

Placeholder ? or *
? or * can be placed anywhere in the search term or at the end of the search term. ? replaces exactly one character, * for a any number of characters.

Example:
- Publi?ation finds publication and publication
- W??mar finds Weimar, Wismar etc.
- Mühl* finds Mühle, Mühlhausen, Mühlhäuser
 

Person search
Preferably, when searching for a specific person, enter the name in quotation marks. Example: "Gerd Röpke".

Original written search
If titles are available in original written form, then you can search for them in this way. Example: История текста и биография А. П. Платонова

Phonetic search
Phonetic search can also be used to find similar terms. This is helpful when the correct spelling of a name or term is unknown. Example: Tollsdeu finds Tolstoy, Tolstoj, Tolstoy etc.

Selected controls

Settings Set settings for the search.

  • Switching to the advanced search "in all libraries". Activate the search in the complete K10plusZentral, providing the link to the interlibrary loan catalog GVK for holdings from the Common Library Network.
  • Activating the phonetic search

Start search Start the search with the entered search term

Select language Select language (German or English)

Select view Selection of the display of the hit list in one to a maximum of four columns

Watchlist Display of all titles on the watchlist

Login, Access to the user account (OPAC)

  • Display of borrowings, orders, media that can be picked up and made available, reservations and charges
  • Renewals of lending periods
  • Cancellation of reservations
  • Change password

Expert search

Search in collections

Search key: collection Search terms (case sensitive!):

  • OLC
  • GVK
  • medline
  • JSTOR
  • NL
  • springer
  • ÖVK
  • DOAJ
  • elsevier
  • Gutenberg
  • CTG

Example: Collection(springer)

Note:
Some collections can be found in the local (default) search space: NL, JSTOR, OLC and GVK - all others only in the advanced search space "Advanced search
in all libraries" .

Search by languages

Search key: language or sprache Search terms: language name (Capital initial letter and in English form mandatory).

Examples:

language(English) language(Portuguese)

Other internal search keys

Other internal search keys

  • author                             author, e. g. author("strittmatter, peter")
  • corporation                    corporation, e.g. koerper(Leibniz-Archiv)
  • doi                                    DOI, Digital Object Identifier, z.B. doi(10.4017*)
  • format                              format, publication form, e.g. format(Journal)
  • genre                                genre, e.g. genre(essay collection)
  • id / ppn                            PPN, internal record number
  • isn                                     ISBN or ISSN, e.g. isn(26294982)
  • prov                                  provenance, e.g. prov(Erfurt public library)
  • publisher                         publisher, e.g. publisher(Herder)
  • series                               series, e.g. series(reclam)
  • signature                        shelf-mark, e.g. signature(DW 4000 S918). Search terms are case sensitive.
  • location                           location, e.g. location(LBS). Search terms are case sensitive.
  • subject                            keyword, e.g. subject(Business Psychology)
  • topic                                classification system and notation, e.B. topic(rvk DP 3100)

The search keys can be used in German and English.

It is possible to combine search keys, e.g. format(Journal) isn(26294982).

Truncation characters such as * can be used, e.g. signature(DP 3100*).

Several search terms can be searched for simultaneously, separated by ",". Hits with one term as well as with the other will be found, e.g. location(MAG, A1MAG) or author(meier, müller).

If there is a space between the search terms, hits are found in which all terms occur, e.g. author(schiller goethe).

Known problems

The Discovery search portal is continuously improved, existing problems are fixed and functionalities are optimized. We are aware of some problems whose solution has not yet been realized. For example, the individual volumes of a journal are not displayed completely and are not sorted chronologically. Availability of individual volumes, e.g. whether a book is currently at the bookbinder or missing, is not displayed. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the information desks. For the functionalities that are not yet or not reliably offered in Discovery, please use the library's online catalog .