Learning Objectives

• Find ISearch on the INFOhio website: www.infohio.org.
• Explore the ISearch interface and understand which content collections are available in ISearch.

What is ISearch?

For those schools that use INFOhio's integrated library system (ILS), ISearch is your school library + INFOhio. ISearch lets you and your students explore the contents of your school library along with multiple collections of magazines and journals, newspapers, reports, primary sources, encyclopedias, videos, and eBooks—reliable content that isn't available on the open web—from a single search box. This can save both you and your students time because ISearch lets you search multiple kinds of high-quality, trustworthy resources from a single search box to find resources for a research project or content to build or supplement curriculum.

If your school does not use INFOhio's integrated library system (ILS) you can still use ISearch! You will not see the materials from your school library and you will not see a My Library tab. Instead of a My Library tab, you will see an eBooks & Videos tab. That tab contains everything that the My Library tab contains, except for the contents of your school library. The contents of all other tabs remain the same. That makes ISearch a great tool for searching nearly all of the INFOhio databases at the same time.

Finding ISearch

The best way to find ISearch is to visit the INFOhio website. Make sure you are logged in with your school or district's INFOhio username and password. 

Don't know how to log in to the INFOhio website? This video shows users how to log in if they are not authenticated. It also shows how to switch log in from the state user name and password to a district or school's specific username and password. For more information about logging into the INFOhio website, review the information in the Introduction to INFOhio class.

Once you are logged in, scroll to the area just below the All INFOhio Resources button. You will see your school or district's ISearch search box there.

ISearch Interface Basics

The ISearch landing page or homepage

If you access ISearch by clicking a link to it, you'll land on your ISearch landing page or homepage.

These are the main components of the ISearch landing page:

1. School or district name displays in the top banner
2. Patron functions include access to log in, a view of the personal account, and ability to view any saved lists
3. Drop-down menus to limit before conducting a search
4. Link to Advanced Search
5. Links to INFOhio tools for students and teachers

What are the tabs across the top of the ISearch results screen?

To make it easier for you and your students to find the items you need among the thousands of results in ISearch, INFOhio displays results on different tabs.

The active tab has a yellow background. The My Library tab is bigger than the other tabs.

This is where the results are coming from under each tab:

My Library

• Your school library catalog
• BookFlix
• World Book Early Learning
• INFOhio eBook Collection from Gutenberg
• INFOhio Digital Video Collection (DVC)

Encyclopedias

• EBSCO Research Starters (content pulled from a variety of high-quality sources, including Salem Press and Encyclopædia Britannica)
• Oxford Research Encyclopedias
• World Book Kids
• World Book Student and Advanced

Basic Sources

You will find magazine and newspaper articles, usually at a lower reading level, on the Basic Sources tab. These are the databases that are searched on the Basic Sources tab:

• Middle Search Plus
• Newspaper Source
• Primary Search
• TOPICsearch

These are some of the publications that may appear in your results on the Basic Sources tab:

• Cricket
• Discover
• Junior Scholastic
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Kids
• Ranger Rick
• Scholastic News
• Scholastic Superscience
• Skipping Stones
• Smithsonian
• Time for Kids
• USA Today

Advanced Sources

You can find scholarly research articles that are more advanced on the Advanced Sources tab. These are the databases that are searched on the Advanced Sources tab:

• Academic Search Premier
• AHFS Consumer Medication Information
• Alt HealthWatch
• Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson)
• Business Source Premier
• Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost
• eBook High School Collection - EBSCOhost
• eBook Education Collection - EBSCOhost
• ERIC
• Health Source - Consumer Edition
• Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
• Home Improvement Reference Center
• Literary Reference Center
• MAS Ultra
• MasterFILE Premier
• MEDLINE
• Points of View Reference Center
• Professional Development Collection
• Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
• Regional Business News
• Religion and Philosophy Collection
• Small Business Reference Center
• Sociological Collection
• Teacher Reference Center
• Very Short Introductions
• Vocational and Career Collection

These are some of the publications that may appear in your results on the Advanced Sources tab:

• Adolescence
• American Journal of Public Health
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• Harvard Law Review
• Journal of Clinical Psychology
• Journal of Mathematical Sciences
• Library Journal
• Modern Language Review
• Nation
• New Republic
• PLOS One
• Sewanee Review

STEAM

You can find resources related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math on the STEAM tab. These are the databases that are searched on the STEAM tab:

• Computer Source
• Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center
• Science Online
• Science Reference Center

These are some of the publications that may appear in your results on the STEAM tab:

• Computer Weekly
• Electronics Weekly
• Macworld
• National Wildlife
• Nature
• New Scientist
• PC Magazine
• Science News

Open Access

You can find articles, government documents, and other resources that have good information and are freely available on some specialized websites on the Open Access tab. These are the content collections that are searched on the Open Access tab:

• Cleveland Memory Project
• OhioLINK ETD Center
• AGRIS
• Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals (AULIMP)
• Archive of European Integration
• arXiv
• Churchill Archive
• CogPrints
• Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH)
• E-LIS (Eprints in Library & Information Science)
• eScholarship
• European Union Open Data Portal
• Europeana
• Government Publishing Office Catalog
• GreenFILE
• LUNA Commons
• Minority Health Archive
• NASA Technical Reports
• OAIster
• Open SUNY Textbooks
• Open Textbook Library
• OpenDissertations
• Oxfam Policy & Practice
• RePEc
• SciELO
• SciELO Books
• SciTech Connect
• SSOAR – Social Science Open Access Repository
• TOXNET TOXLINE
• TOXNET: CCRIS (Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Informatoni System)
• TOXNET: GENETOX (Genetic Toxicology Data Bank)
• TOXNET: HSDB (Hazardous Substances Data Bank)
• USPTO Patent Applications
• USPTO Patent Grants

What is not available in ISearch?

Currently ISearch does not search the following INFOhio subscription databases:

• Capstone Interactive
• Kids InfoBits or ChiltonLibrary from Gale
• Foreign language databases from World Book
• PebbleGo Next
• Transparent Language Online
• The World Almanac for Kids and The World Almanac for Kids Elementary 
• Today's Science

INFOhio adds subscription databases licensed for PreK-12 statewide use to ISearch as content providers build and release connectors.

Tools for Reading Digital Text

Learn more about the many tools available within ISearch in this lesson, Tools for Reading Digital Text.

Reflecting on Your Learning

Answer the following questions in the INFOhio Resources for Research Open Space group Discussions. Find the Features of ISearch reflection question in the Discussions tab. Reply to the thread and review other participants' responses.

1. Based on what you've learned so far, name at least two features of ISearch that will most appeal to your students.
2. What is one question you have about ISearch that you hope will be answered during the training?
3. Think of a time when you used an online shopping site (e.g., Amazon, Kohl's, Target, Walmart, Zappos). Did you find what you were looking for? What features did that site have that made it easy or difficult to use? What are some ways that ISearch is similar to, or different from, the online shopping site you used?