The easiest way is to start from the library's own search engine UEF Primo. There you can quickly search across the library collections to see the books, reports and thesis.
Research articles and other electronic publications can be searched as well.
Links to article or other databases are in UEF Primo.
Outside the university network, you can log in to UEF Primo with your UEF username and password in order to use the subscribed materials. If you are not logged in to UEF Primo, you can enter your username and password when opening the material from the link 'Full text availability'.
This is possible for university students and staff. After logging in you can continue to search as you normally do. Members of the KUH staff use the remote access.
Other customers can use all the materials in the campus libraries.
UEF Primo itself is open to all customers. The limitations concern electronic journals and electronic books as well as many databases.
Search for articles on UEF Primo. Select 'International articles' or 'All e-resources' as your target. By narrowing ‘Peer reviewed’ (scholarly) you’ll get only scientific articles.
Search also via the discipline-specific databases. They are more sophisticated for rigorous searchers.
Other search engines: Google Scholar.
Search for books on UEF Primo. Use the selection 'Library collections'.
Besides English search terms, you can use other languages as well. The result list shows you both printed and electronic books.
Watch a video: How to find a book in UEF Primo (1:54).
Open UEF Primo and select 'Database search' . Type the database name as a search term.
Click the link ‘Full text availability' in order to open the database. If you are outside the campus network, you need your uef-username to log in first.
The university has access to all the core databases, like Web of Science, Scopus, Ebsco, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, PubMed and many others.
Read more about databases suitable for your field of study.
All different databases containing books and articles, such as UEF Primo, PubMed or Scopus, operate by the same principles, although the user interfaces are slightly different. Shared features include:
- search row/rows for which search words are written
- ability to retrieve words only from specific sections, such as for example the title
- use of operators AND, OR and NOT
- possibility of refining and sorting the search result in different ways
- opportunity to locate the publication
- chance to print and store searches and their results
Learn more about the use of databases in User's guide to UEF Primo and open learning materials for information retrieval.
Think about which are the substantive topics in your search question are and enter the plain key terms. Do not use questions or sentences of natural language. Instead, focus on essential terms. You can add defining terms later, if needed.
If your search term is a phrase, use quotation marks. For instance: “forest ecology”.
If your search term can have several forms, use the truncation mark *. For instance, use illegal* to get both illegal and illegality.
Using Advanced search, you can easily modify your search to be more specific and comprehensive. For instance, you can limit your terms to be searched on Title or Subject field only – the results are likely to be more relevant.
Quite often a topic can be expressed in different ways. Connect the alternative terms with OR-operator. Use capital letters. Type the next topic on the next line.
Read more about using operators and other information retrieval techniques from the open educational materials. Check also tips for using UEF Primo: Search techniques in a nutshell.
Open the record you are interested in. There might be a link available: FullText or PDF. If there isn’t, there might be a button 'Find it'. With that button you can check, if the full text is available via other service.
When you are at the university network, all the articles, e-books etc., that you are entitled to read, will open without any user ID’s or passwords.
Outside the campus network, you have to log in to UEF Primo first in order to open the articles. You need UEF username for that. Please notice, that the university has no access to all the articles published online.
More and more scientific articles and other publications are published by Open access principles and they are free to use for all. If you don't have direct access to an article, you can try a search with Google or other search engine: type the article name and see, if there is an free version of the article available.
The characteristics of scientific literature (both books and articles) always include a comprehensive list of sources.
A peer-reviewed (refereed) publication is explicitly scientific. Peer review information can be found in the publication itself or on the publisher's website. Fakes, unfortunately, occur too. Read more about the so-called predator journals from the Guide of open publications searching.
A non-peer-reviewed publication can be a reliable source of information, too. One assessment criterion then is the author's background information: who he or she is and what kind of expertise he or she has. For example, education or profession provide clues about this.
Conclusions can also be drawn from the publisher's background. In particular, self-published books, publishers focusing on a particular ideology, and the offerings of large general publishing houses are worth looking at critically. Instead, publications from research institutions, universities and scientific associations, for example, are reliable.
Particularly with the material being retrieved freely online one must be extra cautious. Instead, the library collection, including various databases, mainly consists of scientific research information as well as selected, popularized non-fiction. Eventually, the decision on the reliability is always made by the user him/herself.
Finnish university libraries are scientific libraries open to all. As with other Finnish libraries, the use of university libraries is free.
UEF Library collections include printed and electronic materials. A free library card - digital or traditional - is required to borrow printed books. Electronic materials (e-books, articles, databases) are used with UEF credentials – also remotely from home.
Libraries operate on a self-service basis: search the book you want with the help of the search service UEF Primo, retrieve it from the open shelf by yourself and borrow it with a lending machine. Books can be borrowed as much as you want, meaning there is no limit to their number.
Book shelves in the library are arranged by disciplines, except the course books. Read instructions how to find a book from a shelf.
You can always ask staff for help. You are warmly welcome to the UEF Library!