My searching is not bringing up anything I can access, how can I find resources for my topic that I can access?
Answer
There are a few things that could be going on:
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If you are searching outside the library, you will be behind a paywall, the institutional searches do not work on those pages so you will have to go onto the library website to actually access the materials. You can use these steps to look for materials you have the citations for on the library website. Here is more information.
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You may be searching using not useful terms so only pulling up obscure or not great academic sources. Here is more information on developing a strong search for your topic. You can email us (library@athabascau.ca) with information on your topic and the searches you have been running and we can help you come up with stronger search terms.
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Not everything is directly linked from the main search box. EBSCO searches and indexes everything it can find on a topic, we have this set up because high level researchers need to be able to find all the material on a topic whether we subscribe to it or not. Your options are to limit your search to full text following these instructions, or to search for the items in our other subscriptions, you can skip step 1 and follow these instructions.
If you are running into error messages, please run through these steps to bypass any errors:
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Make sure you are logged out of any other library logins you use
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Start by clearing your cache and cookies.
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Make sure you are going to the library website directly and not trying to enter it from one of your course websites.
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Try clicking the link a second time
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If this does not work try a new “private" or "incognito" mode
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Try a different web browser, different platforms work better on different browsers so sometimes trying both Chrome and Firefox can be useful.
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Make sure the browser you are using is up to date.
Please let us know if you continue to experience access issues and include:
- which browser you are using, and
- from where you are trying to access the resource, you can include hyperlinks and screen shots so we get the idea (e.g. the Digital Reading Room, a library database, etc.).