One Search: City Tech Library’s New Discovery Tool for Books, Articles and Media

By Cailean Cooney
 
OneSearch is a powerful new discovery application that searches across most of the Library’s resources (including the CUNY Catalog and library databases) through a single portal. CUNY Central’s Office of Library Services made the initial beta version available in September, and we incorporated OneSearch on to our Library’s website this October.

OneSearch is a great resource with which to begin research because it searches many parts of the library collection simultaneously (we still recommend going directly to library databases for subject specific research). Since OneSearch results can be overwhelming, we’ve added a menu with the option to narrow a search exclusively by articles, print books, e-books, or media:

When viewing search results, the column on the left side of the page offers additional “facets” to narrow results by date, topic, and more:

OneSearch has many expanded features beyond the CUNY Catalog and displays if a book is available in the library very clearly. There is also a “Browse Shelf” option for perusing the stacks online:

Customizations and improvements will continue as beta development moves forward. If you encounter a bug please send feedback to the Office of Library Services by clicking the button on the bottom right corner of the OneSearch screen.
Stay tuned: at the start of the spring term, OneSearch will become a prominent fixture on the Library’s new website.
Please feel free to contact Cailean Cooney if you have any questions about OneSearch!