Discovery Search: Looking for a ...?

A guide to using VT Libraries' Discovery Search.

Finding physical items

When you conduct a search in Discovery Search, the list of results will contain a mixture of item types: books, ebooks, journal articles, magazine articles, and much more. If you would like to find a physical item, such as a print book or DVD, you can use the Format limiter from the options to the left of the results: 

Format limiter

If the type of item you're looking for isn't listed, click on "Show More" to see other options: 

full format limiter

To find a print book, select the "Print book" option from under the larger "Book" option. 

Finding articles

While it may be tempting to choose limiters that seem to guarantee that you'll be able to get the full text, choosing these can unnecessarily limit your options. If there's something we don't have, we can always get it for you through interlibrary loan. We recommend ignoring the options "downloadable article" and "full text" in the limiters. 

format menu with downloadable article option crossed out

limit to menu with full text option crossed out

These are listed on some records but not others, so we're unable to remove these from the list of options.