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 one-by-one 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 e-books or print books, only with articles.
In many of our databases, "Find It" looks like this:
But in other databases, it may look like this ("Get Full Text from Purchase"):
How do I use Find It @ Purchase?
1. To use the Find It button, do a search in a library database. If the full text is not available directly within that database, you will see the "Find it @ Purchase" button near the citation.
In some databases, it may say "Find a Copy" or "Access Options" or "Get Full Text from Purchase." The terminology may differ, so follow links that point you towards a PDF.
Example: The article in this image is from a database called Historical Abstracts (by Ebsco). A PDF / full text is not available from Historical Abstracts. You can click "Get Full Text from Purchase" to search for the full article from another database.
2. Clicking on "Find It @ Purchase" or "Get Full Text from Purchase" opens the Library Discovery Search 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: Discovery Search reveals that the article in this image is available through a database called Taylor & Francis Social Science and Humanities Library, which provides coverage for the scholarly journal Dress: Journal of the Costume Society of America from the year 1997 to the present. Click on the Taylor & Francis link to access the full text!
3. If we subscribe, you will see a list of databases that provide the full text of the article under "View Online" (see image above). In some cases, links to multiple databases will appear. Simply click a link 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).
4. 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" in Discovery. If we have a print copy, you will see the word "Available" or "May be 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.
Example: The article from Dress: Journal of the Costume Society of America is also available in print. Under Summary Holdings, it shows that volume 29, issue no. 1, from 2023 is available. Use the call number, "Main Stacks GT500 .D74," to locate this journal issue on the shelf.
- Request through Interlibrary Loan (see details below).
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. Make sure you are signed into Discovery Search, then click "Place Interlibrary Loan Request" from item record. 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 "Trans-Exclusionary Reactionary Feminism and the Politics of Ressentiment" 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 Summer 2025, it will not become available online until Summer 2026. 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's 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 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.