What is Discover?
Discover is a tool that searches physical and many online collections across the Five Colleges and most of our research databases at one time.
It can be a great place to get started on a topic or make sure you haven't missed anything.
Because it's looking for material in so many different places, the search results can sometimes be overwhelming! This page has tips to focus your search.
On the left side of your search results screen there is an option to filter by Format of the material (book, article, etc.).
If you don't see the format you want, click Show More to see all your format filtering options.
On the left side of your search results screen there is an option to filter by Library Location.
Select the location you want to filter by. Your search results will automatically update after each selection.
Locations are ordered by frequency (the number of search results), instead of alphabetically.
If you don't see a library location you need, click on Show More.
For an alphabetical list of locations, click on Show More, then click on Name at the top of the list.
Discover includes a version of the Five College Libraries shared catalog in search results, which is material from libraries at each of the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, UMass).
You can pre-limit your search to only search the Five Colleges catalog, or filter your search results afterwards.
Select the Catalog Only checkbox underneath the search bar. This will limit your search to results in the Five Colleges catalog.
Filter your search results to the Five Colleges catalog
After running a search, on the left side of your search results find the Limit To option.
Select Five Colleges Catalog Only to filter your results to materials in the Five College Libraries.
Discover includes a version of the Amherst College Library catalog in search results, which is material on the shelves at all of our library locations (Frost, Morgan, Keefe, Depository), as well as ebooks we have access to through Amherst and Five College subscriptions.
You can pre-limit your search to only search the Amherst College catalog, or filter your search results afterwards.
Click the advanced search link under the Discover search box
Beneath the search box, find the Limit your results box.
Select Amherst College Only to pre-limit your search to materials across Amherst College library locations, including ebooks.
After running a search, on the left side of your search results find the Limit To option.
Select Amherst College Only to filter your results to materials across Amherst library locations, including ebooks.
Permalinks to a set of search results
To get a permalink for a set of search results, you need to be in an authenticated user mode (on campus via IP address, or signed in if off-campus). Select Share and copy the permalink from the dropdown. This stable, permanent URL will always bring you back to a result set that includes all terms from this search in Discover.
Permalinks to item records
To get a permalink for a specific item, click on the title in the search results, which will take you to the detailed record for the item. In the detailed record, select Permalink at the bottom of the right column. A permalink will appear above the title for the item. This stable, permanent URL will always bring you back to the detailed record in Discover.
