ThULB-Suche is a discovery system. Discovery systems can be described as modern search engines that – aside from the local library stock – offer information on other relevant scientific resources or databases.

This search engine is suitable for selective research and vague exploration of further sources. In addition to integrated access to the library user account, ThULB-Suche offers several more features for a successful research.

Search result list “books & more”

• Represents ThULB’s stock in its entirety: books, journals, e-books, e-journals, databases, DVD, etc.
• More than two million openly accessible e-sources from the library union catalogue K10plus
• More than three million essays from printed journals available in ThULB
• More than 35,000 openly accessible e-sources from Digitale Bibliothek Thüringen (DBT)
• More than 45,000 freely accessible e-resources from Collections@UrMEL
• Enhancements from the union catalogue such as table of contents or reviews
• Search index: K10plus-Zentral

Search result list “articles & more”

• “Global” article index
• Content from scientific databases, entries for e-journals & e-books will be searched for attached information on articles, chapters and essays
• Aside from full-text databases, bibliographical databases such as Web of Science, Scopus or PubMed will be searched
• Around 30 million open access resources
• Search index: Summon-Index
• Two kinds of hits:
  • Full text/PDF = can be used freely (green label indicates open access or as licensed resource from ThULB’s stock
  • “Reference”: a bibliographical information from a database, ThULB does not own licenses for the full text / publishing house does not provide access via article index
• Search results may vary: Contents from licensed databases such as Scopus or Web of Science can only be detected when the user logs onto the university network. (read: information on how to use databases / e-media).

Search bar and search

To start a search, please type a keyword into the search bar. A new search can be started at any time. The bar will always be present at the top of the website.

By default, the search bar is set to search “all fields” – meta data connected with the title will be included. Inserted keywords will be connected (through Boolean operator “AND”). Due to the vast amount of data, result lists will often include loads of hits – some results might not fit the search at all.

For a more effective search, we advise users to use the drop-down menu attached to the search bar. E.g. choose “title” to effectively search for keywords from media titles which produces a more specific result list. The more precise a search is, the more exact might be your result list.

Sort results and refine search

In ThULB-Suche, the default sort order is by relevance and can be adjusted in the menu on the left side (e.g. descending or ascending date). Before sorting the list by date, try to word your search as clear as possible. Vague searches might push unrelated titles up the list.

Several filters on the left can be used to decimate or limit result lists, e.g. format or accessibility.

Fault tolerance and relevance ranking

While conventional library catalogues (e.g. OPAC) aim at presenting very exact results, discovery systems show more tolerance towards erroneous searches. Special characters and letter case are meaningless and the system will automatically search for plural forms and declinations. Similar to other search engines, the algorithm will sort results by relevance. Basically, the appearance of keywords in several fields counts. In case the term appears in categories such as “title” or “author”, it will be valued as more relevant. Frequently clicked titles influence the relevance ranking. From click numbers, the search engine calculates a score and sorts the results accordingly.

Combine different keywords (e.g. from title and author’s name) by putting them in the search bar together.  The more specific the search, the more concrete is the result list (e.g. cantor hamlet 1989).

Via the drop-down menu in the search bar users can define a search category (e.g. search for author, title, keyword, ISSN/ISBN …).

Make use of filters and faceted searches which can be adjusted in the menu on the left (e.g. online access, format, year of publication). They usually help to narrow down vast result lists.

Search for concrete word orders by putting the terms in quotation marks (phrase search).

To eliminate certain words from your search, use NOT (in capital letters) between search words (e.g. Shakespeare NOT Hamlet).

In case the DOI, ISBN or ISSN of media are known, insert them into the search bar right away.

Please try again with alternative keywords, spellings or languages.

Further, please check whether ThULB-Suche offers alternative keywords or spellings underneath the search bar and follow the links.

Use truncation (*) behind a keyword to produce results based on a certain root (e.g. total* govern*).

Search for multiple keywords by connecting them with OR (must be written in capital letters) in the search bar (e.g. Jena OR ThULB).

Make use of alternative sources such as Google or union catalogues (e.g. KVK) to check up on bibliographical references. Slight errors can be detected and erased.

We advise to make use of the interlibrary loan system if necessary.

We differentiate between several forms of access to e-media:

• Open access e-media = can be accessed everywhere without any restrictions (marked green) 
• Licensed e-media = membership and registration with university network necessary (see info use of databases and e-media)

Books & more

In case you want to reduce the result list to e-media only, please use the facet “Online access” on the left. Click on the button “Full text / PDF” to open the respective content:

• E-books: content can be viewed on provider’s website
• E-article: PDF access via LibKey or provider’s website
• E-journals (title entry): link to Electronic Journals Library (EZB)
• Databases (title entry): link to Database Information System (DBIS)

Articles & more

Concerning result lists, full texts will be searched by default. ThULB covers around 17,000 e-journals and the new linking technology called LibKey provides access to full texts. In case LibKey cannot offer any access, users will be either forwarded to the publishing house’s website or directly to a different source via a link resolver. In rare cases (mostly with small providers), users need to browse for contents on the website manually.

Filtering result lists can be done via check boxes:

• Open access: freely accessible e-sources
• Scholarly & Peer Reviewed: scientific publications that have undergone a quality check
• Include references: Additional to full texts, contents from bibliographical databases will be searched as well. Is a hit labelled as “reference”, ThULB does not have access to a digital source or the provider does not offer their content for the article index. Based on the bibliographical information, users can check whether the materials are available in ThULB as printed editions.
• Include newspaper articles: Extents search and includes electronic newspaper articles.

In addition to freely accessible e-media, ThULB-Suche also lists licensed digital content. To be able to access licensed sources, users need to be connected with the university network. In rare cases, users need to create a (free) extra account on the provider’s website (e.g. JURIS) – supplementary to being connected with the university network (see databases / e-media). You are connected with the university network and still cannot get access to full texts? Please report the web link to our e-media team.

References are a special case regarding result lists in “articles & more”. Next to full text databases, ThULB-Suche also searches so called abstract and citation databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed. These sources provide additional information on scientific publications namely bibliographical references. In the background, the system uses these bibliographical data to filter whether desired literature is available. If this is not the case, the hit remains to be shown as a “reference”.

Why do I find sources that I cannot access?

Some major reference databases are searched to make their contents more visible in ThULB-Suche – users do not have to browse through separate sources. In many but not all cases, a way to the desired full text can be pathed from these databases. Moreover, even if you cannot access the full text, you at least gathered a bibliographical reference to work with.

How can I get my favoured literature?

Often, printed versions of the sources can be found in ThULB’s stock. By clicking the button “reference”, the link resolver will forward you to the section “books & more”. Alternatively, switch to said section and search with information such as author, title, ISSN, etc. manually. In case your search ends without any relevant results, please check whether the item can be requested via the interlibrary loan service.

If you want to collect titles in a favourites list, just click on the star icon which is visible on display. The selected items will be attached to a clipboard (upper right corner). It allows users to either save, send, export, print or delete the gathered bibliographical data.

To save the titles as a favourites list, select the relevant ones, click on the little disk icon and log on to your user account. You can either add the data to an already existing list or simply create a new one.

Newly created favourites lists can be kept private or shared publicly with others. In order to grant access, simply send the URL to another person.

After saving, the selected results from your search are listed in your user account where editing is possible.

Please have a look at our tutorial regarding the topic.

It depends. There are several ways to start a topic-based search in ThULB-Suche.

When you have the results on full display, try to follow or work with subsequent information or links:

Keyword I Regensburg Library Network Classification I Bibliography of Thuringia I local shelf mark I basic classification, local classification

Further, the search bar includes the category “keyword” which enables users to search for them specifically.

Tip: Not all media carry the same depth of researchable criteria in ThULB-Suche. Thus, setting filters might unintentionally lead to excluding potential interesting hits.

For a very distinct subject-related search, we advise users to browse through scientific databases and journals:

• Databases (DBIS)
• E-journals (EZB)

Switch to “books & more” in ThULB-Suche and scroll down to the facet “Thuringian bibliography”. It allows users to restrict their search on literature from and about Thuringia. Upon clicking on the facet, a menu appears in which you can limit your search to prefered topics. You can combine multiple topics and further specify subtopics via the pull-down menu. Items that are listed with the Thuringia bibliography carry the Thuringia logo (white and red flag with blue Thuringia map on it).

Please note that the Thuringica collection fully covers years starting from 1991 and these are searchable in their entirety.

Click on “Found nothing?” above the search bar in ThULB-Suche and suggest media​​​​​​​ that should be part of the library’s stock. Our staff members check these inquiries and respond accordingly.

The following data export software and reference management systems are supported by ThULB-Suche:

• EndNote
• BibTeX
• RIS (Citavi, Zotero…)

Learn more on reference management systems by taking part in one of many introductory courses.

General library inductions include information on search strategies and how to work with ThULB-Suche. Further, subject librarians offer courses on subject related media search which also include basic information on reference management systems.

Please check our event calendar for current dates or arrange a workshop with our staff.

At first, please check the bibliographical data – typos or errors can occur. Library union catalogues such as GVK or meta catalogues like KVK or WorldCat provide information on the stocks from multiple libraries. Google Scholar or Google Books can be consulted to check bibliographical references – sometimes they provide immediate access to digital sources.

If ThULB does not contain literature of interest, library users can request these items via the interlibrary loan system. Please search for items in the library union catalogue GVK. Just click on “Found nothing?” above the search bar and select “Interlibrary loan via GVK”.

Click on “Found nothing?” above the search bar in ThULB-Suche and suggest media​​​​​​​ that should be part of the library’s stock. Our staff members check these inquiries and respond accordingly.

You have an idea how we can improve our library catalogue or more questions regarding ThULB-Suche? We would like to hear your opinion!

Reach out to us via the contact form.