This module was created to help students know how to identify and work with research materials. Student will get to know the various mediums available to them, when they should be used, as well as an introduction to major databases and catalogs used in the research process.
Welcome to URSUS Searching!
Let’s begin at the homepage of USM Libraries. You can find this page at Note the red arrow pointing to URSUS and the red box indicating where you should click to produce the Find Box.
Once you click on the plus sign on the right-hand side of the screen, you can enter your search!
Advanced search is created to make it easy to fill-in your search.
Advanced search is created to make it easy to fill-in your search.
If I want a search of cellphones and communication, I simply enter the terms and the website will create the search for me. Note how I also make this a search for books by changing the “content type”.
I can continue my search by clicking on the search button, or add another keyword by clicking on the AND button. That is, by clicking on the AND button indicated by the red square, you can produce another Find box.
Once you have finished your preliminary search, you will now be able to see your search results. We’ll go back to our original search of cell phones and communication.
Notice that on this screen you have the ability to continue to narrow your search by location and year of publication, indicated by the green and red square.
If you click to the right on The Future of Social Movement Research you can access operations specific to that item.
The red arrow indicates where you can request the item, the green arrows indicate where you can save and email the item, and the yellow arrow indicates where you can see all University of Maine System (UMS) locations for this item.
By clicking on the title link (shown in blue) you can see a more detailed description.
Notice that the locations of the item are indicated by the yellow box, descriptive information is indicated by the red arrow and the ability to perform a search for this item in MaineCat (a catalog for items throughout Maine) is indicated by the green arrow.
If you scroll down on this page there are more items of interest about this title.
Take note of the red arrow indicating a “subject heading” that will lead you to more items on the same topic, and also the green rectangle that has a permanent link to this item in URSUS that you can copy and paste for convenience!
Don’t forget to contact the USM Library if you have questions!