What is Find It @ Purchase?
The Find It @ Purchase button helps you search for the full text of an article across all the Library's many subscription databases. It uses OpenURL technology to link from a citation in one database to the full text in a different database.
"Find It" saves you time! Without it, you would have to search several databases separately to locate the full text of an article. You can also use Find It to request an article via Interlibrary Loan.
NOTE: "Find it @ Purchase" does not work with ebooks or print books, only with articles.
In most of our databases, "Find It" looks like this:
But in some databases, it may look like this:
How do I use Find It @ Purchase?
To use the Find It button, complete your search as usual in one of the Library's databases. If the full text is not available directly from that database, you will see the "Find it @ Purchase" button near or below the citation.
In some databases, it may say "Find a Copy" or "Get full text from Purchase." The terminology may differ depending on the database, but follow links that seem to point you towards the PDF.
Clicking on "Find It @ Purchase" opens the Library Discovery Search, usually in a new browser window. You will see the article's citation information, along with its availability. A list of databases that have the full text of this journal will appear under "View Online: Full Text Availability".
Example: The article in this image, titled "The Social Media Response to Black Lives Matter: How Twitter Users Interact with Black Lives Matter Through Hashtag Use," is available through two library databases: Ebsco's SocIndex and Taylor and Francis Social Science and Humanities Library, which provide coverage for the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies from 1978 to the present and 1997 to the present, respectively. Just click on the links to access the full text!
- If we subscribe, you will see a list of databases that provide the full text of the article (see image above). Simply click on one of these links to find the full text! You can then download, email, or save the full text of the article from the new database.
Sometimes the full text is available as a PDF, while in other databases it may be presented in HTML (particularly newspaper databases).
- If the full text is not available online, you have two options:
- Check our print holdings. You can see if the Library has the article in print (hard copy) by clicking "Check Holdings." If we have a print copy, you will see the word "Available" followed by the journal's location and call number. "Summary Holdings" tells you which volumes/years we have in print. Make sure that the years listed under Summary Holdings include the year your article was published.
- Request through Interlibrary Loan (see details below).
- Check our print holdings. You can see if the Library has the article in print (hard copy) by clicking "Check Holdings." If we have a print copy, you will see the word "Available" followed by the journal's location and call number. "Summary Holdings" tells you which volumes/years we have in print. Make sure that the years listed under Summary Holdings include the year your article was published.
How do I request an article through Interlibrary Loan?
If we do not have the article online or in print, you may request a digital copy from another library. Just click "Place Interlibrary Loan Request" from the Discovery Search. Digital articles are typically delivered within a week, often within a day or two!
Why is Interlibrary Loan necessary? We try to provide full text for our users, but Purchase College Library does not have online access to every article ever published! Some articles are too old to be available electronically. Some journals are prohibitively expensive. Many journals have "embargoes" or "blackout dates" where a publisher chooses not to provide electronic access to the most recent issue(s). Luckily, you can still get access to these articles from other libraries via Interlibrary Loan.
Example: The article in the image above, titled "Ask a Feminist: Sexual Harassment in the Age of #MeToo," is not available in full text because it was published too recently. The Library has online access to Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society from 1990 until the present, but with a full text delay of 1 year. Because this article was published in June 2019, it will not become available online until June 2020. You can still get it through Interlibrary Loan by signing into your Library Account (upper right corner) and clicking the link to "Place Interlibrary Loan Request."
Why are there multiple options for the full text of some articles?
The Library sometimes has overlapping subscriptions to electronic journals (see image below). We make multiple options available to you in case of service outages or differences in coverage dates. You may also prefer one database interface over another.
If you see several links to the same article, check the dates to make sure the database you choose covers the year the article was published. If the coverage dates are all the same, just start at the top with the first database listed and work your way down!
Example: This image shows that the journal Environmental Education Research is available in full text in three library databases. This article, titled "Life Trajectories of Youth Committing to Climate Activism," was published in 2016. Based on the coverage dates, all three databases should have the full text. If the article were from 1996, the Ebsco databases would be the best choice because their coverage begins in 1995, while Taylor & Francis' coverage begins in 1997. In contrast, Taylor & Francis would be the best choice for articles published within the last 18 months, because the two Ebsco databases have embargoes of 1 year and 6 months but Taylor & Francis does not.
How can I report a broken link or other problem?
If you encounter any technical problems, please let us know! You can text the library at (914) 873-1711 or email Carrie.Marten@purchase.edu.
Troubleshooting Tips
You can resolve many common Find It @ Purchase problems by doing the following:
- Make sure you access all subject databases from the Library's homepage or the Databases A-Z list.
- Make sure you sign in to your Library Account in Discovery. Signing in lets you see complete online availability options from our Library's databases and reveals the "place interlibrary loan request" link.
- If you get zero results, check the citation information that was pulled into Discovery Search by the "Find It" button. If parts of the citation are missing or incorrect, do a brand new search in Discovery for the title of your article.
- Use Journals A-Z to look up the journal title and verify whether the Library has access to this journal. Make sure the coverage dates include the year your article was published. See this FAQ on finding articles from a citation.