Check out the library's guides and instructions. This page also shows you how to search for different types of materials in the UEF library and find open sources of information as well as the most important information sources in your discipline. The use of many materials and services requires logging in to the library's search service UEF Primo. Information on the courses and training provided by the library as well as guidance is available at the end of the page.
Guides and instructions
Here are compiled guides and instructions produced by the library. Also remember the library chatbot Uffe, where you can explore to guides and instructions through individual questions. Uffe opens from the speech bubble icon at the bottom of the page.
All customers:
- User's guide to UEF Primo (registering, my account, information searching etc.)
- Video guidance for UEF Primo
- Guide for open publications searching (search engines and other tools for open publications)
- Artificial Intelligence in information retrieval (how to use and some examples of applications)
New customers:
- Retrieving publications (books, journal articles, thesis and other materials)
Novice students:
- Quick guide for information searching (resources and how to use them, briefly )
Those who need scientific information searching skills:
- Information retrieval study materials by disciplines (basic techniques and databases)
- Guide to information retrieval (search techniques in general)
- Search examples of different databases (from Guide to information retrieval)
Thesis writers:
- Checklist for master's thesis (useful links about information retrieval and other tools)
Post-graduate students and staff:
- Research information retrieval and management (modules 1 and 2: basic techniques, databases and alerting services)
Thesis supervisors:
Subject terms
For information retrieval, you can use all kinds of search words, but a particularly effective the search is when you use words aimed at this very purpose. They are called subject terms and are selected from certain vocabularies. Learn more about the most commonly used vocabularies.
Basics for everybody:
Get to know the library services:
- Summary of our services (for students, staff and other customers)
- Library's checklist for master's thesis
Some instructions for using library materials:
- Remote access to electronic resources (using e-publications at home)
- E-book instructions (reading and borrowing)
- Using printed materials (borrowing, reserving, renewing)
- Ordering materials (interlibrary loans, legal deposit copies, article requests)
If you need instructions how to use databases, like UEF Primo, or how to make search queries, see above the section Information retrieval.
Introducing the campus libraries there are virtual tours available.
Reference practices and use of reference management software (Zotero, Mendeley) as well as some ready-made citation styles:
Use of Zotero; Mendeley briefly:
For under-graduate students:
- Research data management for undergraduate students - self-study learning material
For post-graduate students and staff:
More information about research data management from UEF Data Support website.
The library does not train the actual use of research methods, but the page below contains links to various guides and instructions:
- Information on choosing research methods
- Use of Covidence (a software for systematic reviews)
What thesis supervisors should know about the library’s information retrieval instruction and support:
AI applications and tools to be utilized especially in information retrieval; what the applications are capable of and what they are not:
Places where you can find open educational resources to use in your own teaching:
The page that opens from the link contains more information on how to search for all kind of open publications.
What supervisors should know about the research data management of a master’s thesis and the support materials about the data management:
- Data management plan (DMP) template for master’s thesis (available for download from the Zenodo publishing platform)
- A RDM-checklist for supervisors - research data management during Master's thesis
- Printable version available for download from the Zenodo publishing platform
- Link to the electronic checklist in Forms (responses are not stored for any purpose other than the supervisor's/student's own use)
- Research data management for undergraduate students - self-study learning material
Subject-specific resources and information specialists you can contact regarding information retrieval and reference management instruction and guidance (for yourself or your students):
Retrieving publications
When you know the name of a book, a journal or an article, but you are not sure how to get the hold of a copy, you can search library's online service UEF Primo to find it. UEF Primo grants you access to both print and electronic materials.
Open access materials
More and more scientific articles or books are published with open access. A variety of services and tools are available to track open scientific publications. Read more about these services in the Guide for open publications searching.
FinELib's Alternative Access page provides further instructions as well as explains what to do if the article is not found open.
Information resources by discipline
Reference management
While you perform large-scale information searches, store your results for instance to a reference management program. Read more about references and the programs.
Logging in to UEF Primo
UEF Primo is the library's open search service. When you sign up for UEF Primo, you will be able to save information searches as well as create your own favorite lists. Remote access to e-materials and databases for Uefians is provided for logged-in users. Search results are more comprehensive in the article search than without logging in.
Read the instructions for logging-in.
Courses
The library arranges courses about information searching for master and post-graduate students. Check studies provided by UEF Library from Peppi (scroll down the opening page to see the courses in English).
Training
The library provides customised trainings sessions on a number of topics for UEFians and by contract for others:
- information retrieval and reference management
- open science
- publication, selecting publishing channels, article processing charges, self-archiving
- research data management, DMPTuuli, data management plans, opening research data
- research evaluation, finding citation information and h-index
- use of AI in scholarly information retrieval
The training can be arranged online with Teams or Zoom or the library’s specialist can, e.g. attend a departmental meeting. For UEFians the trainings are free of charge.
Contact us at information.services@uef.fi and let’s plan a suitable training together!
2,077
completed credit points (2023)
42
study units (2023)
189
training sessions (2023)
Guidance
You can ask the library's information specialists for advice on using the UEF Library's information resources and databases. Brief guidance sessions are free of charge and they can be arranged at the library or online with Zoom or Teams. See service fees for information retrieval.
Arrange a personal or group guidance appointment by using an online form or by email information.services@uef.fi. You can also ask for guidance time for a group.
Before booking an appointment time, check out the service policy, which tells you what kind of things are discussed in the guidance and what you should do before the guidance.
Before you ask for help with your information retrieval, for example book an appointment with an information specialist:
- Try searching (something else than Google).
- Check out our information retrieval guides (search terms and how to combine them and databases in your field).
- Mull over your challenges. What specifically do you need help/guidance for?
In the guidance session of information retrieval, the information specialist will go through:
- Keywords
- Tips for finding search terms and subject headings
- Correct forms of these terms
- Search logic (combining search terms logically for the topic)
- Means of broadening or narrowing the search
- Choosing databases relevant to the topic, and guidance and advice on how to use them
- Advice in documenting the searches (for example, keeping search histories)
- Introduction of reference management programs (Zotero, Mendeley) and Covidence (especially exporting search results, i.e. references)
In particular, guidance of information retrieval for systematic reviews aims to ensure that the searches are systematic, comprehensive and repeatable. However, responsibility for final search terms and searches rests with the researcher/student.
The departments, instructors, or authors themselves are responsible for:
- Methods and techniques of literature reviews
- Determining the inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Deeper evaluation and selection of information sources
- Discipline-specific reference practices
Contact information
If you have questions about information retrieval, use of databases, reference management, teaching, training or guidance, please contact: information.services@uef.fi.
Contact information of information specialists by disciplines are listed in Information resources by disciplines.
All library service addresses and staff members can be found in the contact information.