Music: UC Library Search Basics

With UC Library Search you can find and borrow materials from UC Libraries quickly and easily. As of July 27, 2021, the libraries on all 10 University of California campuses were connected through UC Library Search, a unified discovery and borrowing system. 

With UC Library Search, you are able to:

• Search UCSB’s local library collection and all 10 UC libraries’ collections in the same system;

• Locate millions of print and online books, journal articles, and other content;

• Borrow and renew materials from any library in the UC system using only your UCSB NetID and password. 

The search box on the UCSB Library website directs you to the Simple Search for UC Library Search by typing a title or one or more words into this search box will return results that contain all or part of your specified terms.

Once you have been directed to your results from the UCSB Library website, you will find this Simple Search box remains at the top of your screen. 

When typing into the Simple Search box from the top of your screen, you will be given a drop down menu where you can choose from a variety of scoping options.

Scoping Options:  

Articles, Books, and More: Everything provided by all UC Campuses plus other libraries

UCSB Library Catalog: Resources only from UC Santa Barbara

UCSB Course Reserves: Resources reserved for courses offered at UC Santa Barbara

UCSB Special Research Collections: Resources only from UC Santa Barbara Special Collections

UCS Discovery Network: Resources from all University of California Libraries.

Boolean Operators:

AND, OR, NOT: Change the operator between your search terms or phrase to expand or narrow your results.

AND: Requires both terms are present in the result list. Results will decrease as both terms must be present.

OR: Either term can be present in the result list. Results will increase as one or both terms can be present.

NOT: Removes a results with a given term. Results will decrease as results with that term will be omitted.

UC Library Search also offers an Advanced Search option. Use this search to build more advanced search statements and limit your results to specified parameters.

You can find the link for UC Library Advanced Search under the search box on the UCSB Library website.