Electronic Resources Training

Your place for finding books, articles, media,  and more from Cal State LA, the CSU Library System, and worldwide.

What is OneSearch?
OneSearch features an intuitive and mobile-ready single interface that provides a gateway to a wealth of print, electronic and digital collections, and makes it easy to find, explore, cite, save and share books and media from across the CSU Libraries. OneSearch includes CSU+, a book, and media sharing system for the entire CSU.

What am I searching for using OneSearch?
By default, OneSearch looks for resources available at Cal State LA, including: 

• Articles - A collection of millions of scholar journal articles, magazine articles, and newspaper articles from numerous databases and journal packages via our subscriptions and open access collections. 
• Dissertations and Theses - a comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in social science, humanities, and educations
• Books and Media - Including print books, ebooks, DVD's, streaming videos (except Kanopy videos) music CDs, etc. 

Four Search Options (Scopes) in OneSearch from the Library Homepage

• Cal State LA Collections -- Search anything owned or subscribed by Cal State LA Library including books, articles, ebooks, journals, audio visual materials, and more.
• Articles -- Search for journal, magazine, and newspaper articles in Cal State LA subscription databases, journal packages, open access and more.
• CSU Collections -- Search for books, audio visual materials and more across 23 CSU campuses and request items we do not have (including those checked out) at Cal State LA via CSU+ resource sharing service.
• EBSCO Articles -- Some articles included in EBSCO databases are not covered by OneSearch Article Search.  To find all Articles in EBSCO databases, you need to select Articles scope from the OneSearch drop-down box and under "All Articles" tab, select "EBSCO Articles".  Or go to EBSCO databases directly from the Database A-Z list.  

Cal State LA Collections is the default setting.  You can see all four search options when you click the down arrow, and you can then select the search option of your choice.  If you don't select a search option, you will be searching Cal State LA Collections by default.

Research Tools -- Access from the Library Homepage

• Databases -- Access all library subscription databases A-Z list, by subject, and by type
• Course Reserves -- Access to search or browse all course reserve materials by course, faculty course title, etc.
• Journals -- Search individual journals to track down articles when article linking doesn't work; or browse journals by category/subject.
• Google Scholar -- Direct users to search Google Scholar and the search results connect to our available resources.
• WorldCat -- Covers books worldwide.  You can use it when you don't find the book when search the All CSU Collections. 

OneSearch Main Menu
The main menu provides access points to search options.  The three dots takes you to more option hidden on another page. 

Differences between OneSearch and Primo VE?
Primo VE, we call it OneSearch at California State University, is a web-scale discovery platform featuring an intuitive and mobile-ready single interface that provides a gateway to a wealth of print, electronic and digital collections.  The interface makes it easy to find, explore, cite, save and share books and media from across the CSU Libraries.  OneSearch includes CSU+, a book and media sharing system for the entire CSU.

Difference between Primo VE and Central Discovery Index?

• OneSearch/Primo VE is the interface through which you search for content.  
• Central Discovery Index (CDI) is a centralized dicovery index serving as a knowledgebase for discovery. It’s comprised of journal articles, e-books, reviews, legal documents and more that are harvested from primary and secondary publishers and aggregators, and from open-access repositories. Not 100% of Cal State LA subscription resources are indexed by CDI, such as some EBSCO content. Some of the resources indexed by CDI are not available directly from Cal State LA Library, but these materials can be requested through our Interlibrary Loan Services.

What are you searching?
OneSearch/Primo VE is a search tool that allows you to find and access a wide range of print and electronic resources provided by the library.  These resources are drawn from both ALMA and Central Discovery Index.   Alma contains the library’s physical items of print books, print journals, theses, scores, maps, video and CDs, microfilm, and other physical items as well as eBooks & eJournals.

The Central Discovery Index is an aggregation of hundreds of millions of scholarly e-resources and includes many of the library’s article databases. While CDI is increasing its coverage, some library’s subscription journal packages, index/abstract and non-article based databases are not covered currently.  These subscription resources not indexed by CDI are not available for searching in OneSearch/Primo VE, such as some of the EBSCO content.  To search all EBSCO content, you need to select the EBSCO Articles scope to do the search.

Inculde results beyond Cal State
When you check the box “Include results beyond Cal State”, you will be searching the entire CDI including those resources indexed in CDI that we don’t have subscriptions to.  At the results page, articles we don’t own can be requested via ILLiad Interlibrary loan.

CSU+ vs. ILLiad 
--Request all articles not available at Cal State LA, and books and other physical items beyond Cal State 

--Request books and other physical items not available Cal State LA including items we don't own and checked out items

Step 1 -- Go to the Library Homepage and enter your search keywords, or title or author in OneSearch box, e.g., artificial foods, and click Go

Step 2 -- Sign-in to OneSearch

You will now see your search results.   Before you continue, please "Sign In" (upper right corner of the screen) with your MyCalStateLA account.  This will give you full access to all the features of OneSearch and make it easy to request items we don't have here at Cal State LA.

Step 3 -- Refine Your Search

At the result page, you will see a list of items displayed by relevancy order in a variety of material types. You can narrow down your search result by using the Facet on the left side of the result page. You can narrow down by:

• Resource Type
• Subject
• Publication Date
• Author/Creator
• Language
• Collection
• More...

Step 4 -- Looking at Results
If you are looking for scholarly journal articles, select articles under "Material Type" and  then select Scholarly/Peer-reviewed Journal Articles under "Available at Cal State LA"

Export Search Results to RefWorks

• Save the article records by clicking on the blue pin icon next to each article title
• Click the big pin icon on the top menu bar
• Select all articles you want to export
• Click the three-dot icon on the My Favorites bar
• Click RefWorks
• A RefWorks page should open with both the Legacy and New RefWorks
• Login to the RefWorks of your choice with your RefWorks ID and Password
• If you don't have a RefWorks account, click "Sign up for a New Account" link to create a RefWorks account for yourself.

Step 1 -- Go to OneSearch box, select CSU Collections option (scope), and enter your keywords 

You will see a result list with the following availability scenarios:

• Available at Cal State LA
• Available at other institutions
• Check availability in other CSU libraries
• Check holdings

Step 2 -- Options to obtain these items

• First, login using your My CalStateLA Identity ID and password
• Second, check whether the item is available and it is loanable
• If yes, you have two options of obtaining the item
  • Go to the local library that has the item available for loan.  Your Cal State LA OneCard works for all CSU libraries
  • You can also request the item via CSU+