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Search The State Library of Ohio Advanced Search You can use this search box to search for items in the State Library of Ohio's collection. This search will return items physically owned by the State Library of Ohio, the Bureau of Workers' Compensation Library, the Ohio Department of Transportation Library, the Ohioana Library collection and items from the Ohio School for the Deaf. This search includes both United States publications and publications produced by state agencies in Ohio.
Advanced Search The WorldCat search box allows you to find items from many libraries around the world. State employees can use the blue 'Interlibrary Loan' button on the records to request books from other libraries. The State Library of Ohio will make every effort to obtain the items from the owning library, but all items may not be available. To obtain journal articles, check OhioLINK's citation search page or email refhelp@library.ohio.gov. |
The State Library of Ohio is one of 88 OhioLINK Libraries. This is a group of mainly university libraries in Ohio who share electronic resources and physical materials. All cardholders can request items from any OhioLINK library and state employees can have these materials delivered to their office though interoffice mail. Once you have searched OhioLINK and found an item you would like to request, look for the green 'Request Item' button and enter your last name and the last nine digits of your library card number.
Search tips for the State Library of Ohio and OhioLINK
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The State Library of Ohio and OhioLINK search boxes utilize a special system to help you find materials in our collections. If you can’t find what you are looking for, check out these search tips to improve your results:
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Phrases: Multiple words are searched together as a phrase.
Example: The search [world health organization] not will find 'World Economic Health Organization'. -
WildCards: Words may be shortened using:
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An asterisk [*] to represent 1-5 characters.
Example: The search [environment* polic*] will find 'environmental policy', 'environmental policies', and 'environments policy'. -
A double asterisk [**] for open ended searches.
Example: The search [comput**] will find 'computer', 'computers', 'compute' and 'computing'. -
A question mark [?] to replace a single character anywhere in a word.
Example: The search [wom?n] will find both 'women' and 'woman'.
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An asterisk [*] to represent 1-5 characters.
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Boolean Searches: Use 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT' to create complex searches. AND will limit your search, OR will expand your search and NOT will exclude words from your search.
Examples: The search [stocks AND bonds] will only return results with both the word 'stocks' and the word 'bonds'; the search [stocks OR bonds] will return results containing either word. Complex searches like [ (Alaska OR Canada) AND (adventure NOT vacation) ] will return results featuring the word 'adventure' with either 'Alaska' or 'Canada' but not the word 'vacation'. -
Proximity: Use 'NEAR' to specify words close to each other in any order.
Example: The search [California NEAR university] will find results where the words may be near one another but not necessary adjacent (i.e. 'University of California'). -
Field Searches: Select a field from the dropdown menu to the right of the search box or use the shortcut codes below to search a specific category:
- a:author
- t:title
- s:subject
- n:note (includes publisher)
Example: A search for 'baseball' using the title dropdown selection (or [t:baseball] will only find words with 'baseball' in the title and will not return items with baseball as a subject.
You can also use the ‘Advanced Search’ link located under each search box to further refine your search by date, material type, location and more.
WorldCat Search Tips:
Like the State Library of Ohio and OhioLINK searches, you can use field search shortcuts to help you search WorldCat more effectively. Some common shortcuts are listed below but you can find a full list here.
- kw: Keyword
- au: Author
- dd: Dewey Decimal Number
- gn: Government Document Number
- isbn: ISBN
- lc: Library of Congress Number
- su: Subject
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yr: Year
Quick Start Guides:
For more help with searching, check out these Quick Start Guides:
Ten Minute Tutorials:
You can also view the State Library of Ohio’s Ten Minute Tutorials for a quick walk though of the following topics:
- Accessing Your Account
- Finding A Book
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Requesting A Book
Additional Resources:
The State Library of Ohio provides access to many electronic resources including eBooks, eAudiobooks, journal articles and government documents. Most of these resources are available only to state employees, however, some are available to all patrons with a library card from the State Library of Ohio. To see a list of these resources along with detailed information, links and user restrictions, please click here.
State employees can use two of these resources, the Electronic Journal Center and EBSCOHost to find journal articles which are available online though the State Library of Ohio. These resources can be accessed through OhioLINK. Assistance using these resources and logging into OhioLINK can be found at the State Library of Ohio’s Resource Training page.
Ohio Residents can find articles using the Ohio Web Library.
Further Assistance:
Further assistance with searching or finding materials is available though the Research Services Department at the State Library of Ohio. They can be contacted by phone at 614-644-7051, by email at refhelp@library.ohio.gov, by chat, or via text by sending ‘statelib’ and your question to 66746. The Research Services Department is also available for in person consultations at the State Library of Ohio from 8-5, Monday-Friday.
To find the answers to some frequently asked questions regarding checking out books, please see our Circulation FAQs, located at: http://www.library.ohio.gov/PCS/CirculationCircFAQ.