Basic Searching
Discovery allows you easily to search for books, articles, videos, and other types of primary and secondary information sources. By default, a basic search is a “keyword” search. Enter a term in the search box and press “enter” on your keyboard or use the search button to perform the search.
Search results & default settings
A basic search by default returns results from Libraries Worldwide, meaning that you get what resources are available in your library and to libraries which participate in sharing their resources within a community of libraries. Search results are by default grouped by work and displayed via a representative record.
Edition grouping brings records together that have the same:
- Title, author, format,
- Language of publication,
- Year of publication,
- Publisher (first entry).
A basic keyword search returns a huge number of results. In such cases, you may wish to narrow down the number of search results by using the filtering options that are available.
Filtering results
Discovery offers several filters to narrow down your search results, these appear on the left-hand side of the screen.
Click on a collapsible panel to see the available limiters.
By default displays results from all libraries that participate in this service. When you get a big number of results, narrow it down by selecting "The American College of Greece Libraries". This option allows you to view the resources which are readily available from our print and online collections. Selecting a particular library, like "John S. Bailey Library" dispalys only physical items, like books from our print collection. This is an option that may narrow your results a lot, so you should better use it only if you want to find print books.
By default displays results from all types of information sources, books, articles, videos, etc. Use this limiter to narrow down your results by a particular type of source.
Use this filter to select from Full Text, Peer Reviewed, or Open access.
By default displays results from all years of publication. Use this filter to narrow the results to the last 5 years, choose a custom year range, or search a single year.
By default displays results from all authors mentioned in the results list. Use this filter to select sources written by particular authors.
Use this filter to include specific subjects, such as social work & social welfare.
Use this filter to limit to results from a single database.
Use this filter to narrow results to a particular language.
Expanding results
Expand search with related terms, is a default option that Discovery enables in order to include additional related search terms.
For example, if you are searching for drug abuse, Discovery will automatically expand your search to include related terms.
If you select include related terms you can see which related terms are included in the search, e.g. Drug use and Substance-Related Disorders. If you feel that the additional terms, return overwhelming number of results or that they are not related, you can select to search for the original term only.
Search History
Discovery allows you to keep track of your searches by using the "Search History" feature 
which is available at the top right of the screen. Search History allows you to:
- revisit the list of searches you have conducted, including the keywords you have used and the results these keywords have retrieved.
- share the list of searches and their results with yourself and /or others.
- delete unsuccessful or irrelevant searches.
Search history is stored temporarily while you are having a session. You will need to Sign in to automatically save and manage your search history in your account.
Take a look at the picture below to find out how Search History is displayed.
Sign in to Discovery
Click on the 'Sign In' link at the top right corner of Discovery to log in to My Account. After logging in with your ACG Network Username and Password, your name will be displayed at the top-right corner of the screen. If you are a staff member, you will need to request your login credentials at John S. Bailey Library. By signing in My Account, you can:
- view your account details, click on your name and then select 'My Account'.
- create lists of resources select 'My Personal Lists'. You may choose to create either private or public lists. The public lists allow others to view your list via a shareable link.
- use "Saved Searches" to recall or continue with a search. To save a search, you need to be signed in and click 'Save this search' from the facet area on the left side of the results page.
- view or renew on-loan items.
Transition from basic to expert searching
Before moving to expert searching techniques make sure that you have:
- used natural language keywords to describe your topic,
- used synonyms and relevant terms,
- reviewed relevant readings to come up with scientific terminology relevant to your topic.
If after these attempts, you perform a basic search which does not return satisfying results in terms of how focused they are, you may use expert searching techniques.