Research tips & tricks

Printed literature that is not held in our library can be ordered via inter-library loan.

If an e-book is not available at our library, you can order the printed edition of the book (if available) via inter-library loan.

You can also send us an acquisition request for a book by emailing bibliothek(at)hs-kempten.de. We will then check whether the book would be suitable to stock and let you know quickly either way.

1) Open our library catalogue, which lists the entire stock of literature held at the university.

2) Enter main keywords from the title of the book in the search box Title.

• You can leave out “the”, “a”, “and”, etc.

• Be careful to avoid any typos. The catalogue can’t ignore spelling mistakes, but it doesn’t matter whether you use capital letters or lower case.

• If you get too many hits, you can narrow down the results by entering the name of the author – surname, first name – in the search box for Author.

• You can also enter keywords from the title of the book and the author’s surname in the search box for All fields. However, this might generate hits that are not relevant to you.

If the (e-)book that you are after is available at our library, it will be displayed in the list of results under the Catalogue tab.

• Members of the university can access e-books via the “Full text” button; whereas guest readers can only do so within the library.

• For printed books, the shelf mark (= the location of the book in our library) is displayed in the details.

• You can take printed books off the shelf yourself and borrow them either via self-checkout or at the lending counter.

• If the book is already on loan, you can reserve it in the catalogue.

Option 1)

• Enter the title of the article into our library catalogue in the search box Title.

• In the list of results, switch to the tab Articles & more.

• If the article that you are looking for shows up in the results, open its individual entry.

• If we have a full-text licence for the journal containing the article, you can access and download it using the “Full text” button.

• If we don’t have the licence for that particular journal, you can order the article via inter-library loan using the “SFX” button.

• If the article doesn’t appear in the results, you can order it on inter-library loan – free of charge.

Option 2)

• Enter the title of the journal containing the article into our library catalogue in the search box Title and restrict the publication type to journals under Limit search.

• If the journal is available in electronic or print format in our library, it will be displayed in the results under the Catalogue tab.

• If we hold the electronic version, you can access the journal’s website and articles by clicking on the “Full text” button. Search for the year and issue containing the article that you are looking for.

• If we hold the print version of the journal in our library, its location / shelf mark is displayed in the individual entry.

• If we don’t stock the journal in any form, you can order the article via inter-library loan.

1) Define your search terms

At the beginning of your research, make a list of search terms that describe your topic.

Think of synonyms, alternative spellings, generic and subordinate terms and (if necessary) foreign-language translations of your search terms.

If you find any suitable terms for your topic in the course of your research, add them to your table – then conduct a new search using this term.

University members can also download a sample template for a search term table in our Moodle course.

2) Link terms

Most library catalogues and databases allow users to link several search terms – either via a selection menu or manually.

You can link two or more search boxes with AND, OR, or AND NOT using the selection menu.

• Linking with AND returns only results that match both criteria.
  • Example: “Library AND opening hours” returns only hits that contain the term library and the term opening hours. The more terms you link with AND, the more precise your search will be, and the fewer your results.
• A link with OR returns results that meet one of your search criteria.
  • Example: “College OR university OR university of applied sciences” returns hits that contain one of these three search terms. The more terms you link with OR, the more numerous your results will be. OR queries are good for searching for several synonyms and translations of a term at the same time.
• You can use AND NOT to exclude certain terms from your search.
  • Example: “Golf AND NOT car” returns only hits that don’t relate to that model of car – handy if you are searching for literature about golf as a sport.

3) Search for phrases

If you place search terms that consist of several words in inverted commas, you will only get hits that contain exactly the wording inside the inverted commas.

Examples: “closed-loop supply chain”, “French Revolution”, “social transformation”, or “care at home”.

4) Use wildcards

You can use the * (asterisk) on your keyboard to replace one or as many characters as you like in a word and thus search for different grammatical forms of a word or word combinations at the same time.

Example: romanti* returns hits for romantic, romantics, romanticism, romanticise, romanticising, romanticisation, etc.

The best place to start your research is in our library catalogue, where you will find all the literature available at our library. In addition, you can also use the catalogue to access articles/papers in electronic journals and to order literature from other libraries via inter-library loan for delivery to Kempten.

You also have access via our library to a wide range of electronic databases listing different kinds of scientific literature. Select your subject area in the Infosystem database to start searching in the TOP databases – the ones deemed to have the best content in their field.

Please note: If you are not a member of Kempten University of Applied Sciences, you will need to visit the library in person to access the databases and electronic full texts in our catalogue there. However, you can search in free online databases.

You can find a large number of freely accessible scientific documents (open-access literature) in the scientific search engine BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

1) Create a research protocol

Note down (preferably in a table)

• which terms
• in which combinations
• which library catalogue
• which database
• which scientific search engines (e.g. BASE, Google Scholar or Semantic Scholar)

you have used.

Were there enough relevant hits?

If no, change your search query.

University members can also download a sample template for a research protocol in our Moodle course.

2) Use a reference management programme

Especially for sizeable scientific papers, it makes sense to log the sources that you have researched in a reference management programme to help you keep track of everything. You can then evaluate the content of the literature and link it to a text management programme.

When you conduct a search in our catalogue, the results are sorted under three tabs:

• Catalogue: Our university library stock (mainly printed and electronic books). You can read and download the electronic literature listed under this tab straight from the catalogue; university members can also access electronic literature off-site.
• Articles & more: Integrated database containing mainly papers/articles in periodicals/journals with and without full-text access. For articles without full-text access, please see our Information on inter-library loans.
• Verbundkatalog: Holdings at other academic libraries, which you can order via inter-library loan for delivery to Kempten. Please note: For licensing reasons, certain eBooks might not be accessible to read or download from this broader catalogue – in which case, please order the print version of the book via inter-library loan.

Search box: All fields

Entries in this box search all information on the media contained in our catalogue – title, bibliographic details such as ISBN, year and place of publication, etc., keywords, tables of contents, abstracts, etc. This generally produces a large number of hits, but not all results may be relevant to your topic.

Search box: Author

Here, you can search for literature written by specific people. Use the format “surname, first name”. A drop-down menu will open for you to select the name that you are looking for. You will then get a list of all the literature in our catalogue that is attributed to this person.

Search box: Title

This search box only checks the titles of books and journals. Use it if you already know which book/journal you need.

Search box: Subject

You can use this box to focus the search on a specific topic – based on standardised terms assigned by libraries, which enable you to search for literature on a specific topic, irrespective of language and title.

To do so, enter your search term in the Subject search box. There is an index attached to this search field, so a drop-down list opens as soon as you start typing. If your search term matches one assigned by the library, you can select it from this index to launch a search for your topic, generating a list of hits that has been specifically earmarked under this category.

The search terms listed in the index are particularly suitable for a thematic search. However, even if your term is not included in the drop-down list, you can still use it to search – although you might receive less relevant hits. In this case, think of alternative search terms or enter your search term in the search box All fields.

A subject search usually returns fewer hits than a search in All fields. However, the results will match your specific topic more closely.

Linking search boxes:

You can link two or more search boxes with AND, OR, or AND NOT using the selection menu.

• Linking with AND returns only results that match both criteria of your search.
  • Example: “Library AND opening hours” returns only hits that contain the term library and the term opening hours. The more terms you link with AND, the more precise your search will be, and the fewer your results.
• Linking with OR returns results that match one of your search criteria.
  • Example: “College OR university OR university of applied sciences” generates hits that contain one of these three search terms. The more terms you link with OR, the more numerous your results will be. OR queries are good for searching for several synonyms and translations of a term at the same time.
• You can use AND NOT to exclude certain terms from your search.
  • Example: “Golf AND NOT car” returns only hits that don’t relate to that model of car – handy if you are searching for literature about golf as a sport.

Scientific journals are published on a regular basis in distinct scientific fields and on special scientific topics – generally including the latest scientific findings and methods.

Researchers submit their research findings to these journals in the form of articles or papers (equivalent to essays). Usually, these articles are peer-reviewed before publication, i.e. they undergo scientific scrutiny by researchers from the same discipline to check the articles for quality.

Articles in scientific journals are therefore the most important source of information on current and high-quality research results in any field.

Scientific journals are published either in print, electronically or in both formats.

If you search our library catalogue for literature on a specific topic, you will be directed towards articles in academic journals in the section Articles & more. You can limit results to the document type “Article”.

In most scientific databases, you will mainly receive articles in scientific journals as the result of a thematic search.

If you would like to find out which electronic journals are available for your subject area, you can check the list by subject area in the Electronic Journals Library (“EZB”). Electronic journals that we have licences for (green or yellow traffic light symbol) can then be accessed via the link in the EZB.

If you would like to know whether a particular journal is available in print or electronically in our library, enter the title of the journal into our library catalogue in the search box Title and limit the search to the publication format “journal”. If we have a licence for an electronic journal, you will see a link in its details, which means that you can search for articles on your topics in the individual volumes and issues. If we have subscribed to the journal in print, it will also be displayed in the results. Our printed scientific journals are kept on the gallery level of the library.

Scientific databases contain a wide variety of scientific literature: articles from scientific journals, books, data, statistics, conference papers, and a whole lot more.

Please note: Not all databases provide direct access to the literature (i.e. the electronic full text). In some cases, they only contain the bibliographic information, i.e. the details of articles/books that have been published, which you would then need to order via inter-library loan. If the SFX button is displayed in a database, you can do so directly from the database. The button might also link you to the electronic full text of the document.

• Open the database info system. There, you will find a list of all the databases for which we have licences at Kempten University of Applied Sciences, sorted by subject.
• Select your subject area. You will then be shown all databases that contain related literature.
• To simplify your search, we have pre-set a number of “TOP” databases, with the most and best content.
• If you click on any of these, you will be taken to a page showing more detailed information on the contents of that particular database.
• Click on the link next to “Recherche starten” to start your search.
• In most databases, you can enter your search terms in a general field, which includes all the details of the stored literature – or use special fields such as Title or Subject/keyword.
• Use the filter options in the databases to narrow down your results, e.g. by year of publication or subject.

Do you have any questions about searching a specific database? If so, please feel free to ask us.

University members can also access our databases off-site by logging in with their campus ID during the process (same details as for MeinCampus).

Guest readers can only access our licensed databases on site in the library. However, you can search a variety of free online databases wherever you are.

• Check that you spelled everything correctly. Library catalogues and databases usually don’t allow for spelling mistakes.

• Use the general search box / All fields search. This will generate more results than a subject-specific search.

• Use alternative search terms – try synonyms, alternative spellings, generic and subordinate terms.

• Perhaps you have entered too many search terms? Narrow them down to the most important ones.

• If your topic consists of several components, there might not yet be any literature covering the full combination? You could try searching for the individual aspects separately.

• Use wildcards: You can use the * (asterisk) on your keyboard to replace one or as many characters as you like in a word and thus search for different grammatical forms of a word or word combinations at the same time. Example: romanti* generates hits for multiple terms including romantic, romantics, romanticism, romanticise, romanticising, romanticisation, etc.

• Combine more search terms to make the search more specific.

• Use the Subject search box instead of the general one, which searches all literature data. You will get fewer, but thematically more precise hits. These more specific search boxes can be found in the Advanced Search function in most databases.

• Search for phrases: If you place search terms that consist of several words in inverted commas, you will only get hits that contain exactly the wording inside the inverted commas. Examples: “closed-loop supply chain”, “French Revolution”, “social transformation”.

• Filter your results: Narrow down the literature by year of publication, subject, etc. Filter options are usually displayed to the left or right of your list of results in catalogues and databases.

Ask us for help!

Helping people to search for literature is a core aspect of our library’s remit.
Send us an email explaining your issue (preferably with links and/or screenshots if you got “stuck” in a database), call us, or come and talk to us at the lending counter during our opening hours.
We will be happy to help!

At the start of each semester, we offer introductory courses in researching scientific literature. During the semester, you are welcome to book a course for your seminar group – please contact us.

We offer students who are getting started with their final thesis (bachelor’s or master’s) the chance to get one-on-one advice on researching relevant literature for this purpose.

We offer individual introductions to using the library and databases for teachers and researchers at Kempten University of Applied Sciences.

We also offer special research training to classes of pupils at grammar schools or FOS/BOS colleges tailored to your major topic of interest. Take a look at our webpage for school classes.