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Discover@UMSL

How to find articles, books, and more using our library search tool.

Saving and Retrieving Items

Whenever you see search results that look even remotely promising, you should save them for future reference. The nice thing about Discover@UMSL is that—because you’re already logged in when you perform a search—any results you save will automatically be added to your personal account and saved indefinitely. You won’t lose them when you close your browser window, but you do have to actively save them.

You can save items into their default locations (as outlined in the bulleted list below) or into custom folders that you’ve created for specific courses, projects, or topics.

  • Articles is the default location of saved citations for any type of article or report as well as (strangely) print books, maps, video recordings, and other file types.
  • eBooks is the default location of saved citations for eBooks.
  • The remaining categories (Images, Videos, Companies, Pages, and audioBooks) will rarely hold any citations you’ve chosen to save. 
     

 1   To save an item to its default location:

 A   Click the blue Add to Folder icon to the right of the item’s title. NOTE: If you’ve already added Custom folders (see procedures in  2  below), each time you click a blue folder icon you’ll be asked to choose where to save the item—in the default folder or in a custom folder.

Example A: Blue add-to-folder icon

 B   After clicking on it, the icon will change to a yellow Remove from Folder icon to indicate the item has been saved.

Example B: Yellow remove-from-folder icon indicates the item has been saved
 

 2   If you are doing research for multiple classes or projects, it can be helpful to create custom folders:

 C   First, open your account in a new browser tab by right-clicking on the My Library Account link in the dark gray bar near the top of the page. 

Example C: Right click the My Library Account link to open your personal account in a new browser tab

 D   Click the New link in the My Custom area of your account dashboard. 

Example D: To add a custom folder, click the New link in the My Custom section of your account dashboard

 E   Give the new folder a short name (and a description, if needed) and click Save.

 F   Your new folder now appears in the My Custom area of your account dashboard. 

Examples E and F: After you've assigned a name to your new custom folder, it appears on your account dashboard.

 G   Once you’ve created a custom folder, you’ll have the option to copy or move items that are currently in your default folder (and vice versa). 

Example G: Copy or Move items from one folder to another

 H   Back on your search results, if a custom folder exists, each time you click on a blue Add to Folder icon, you’ll be asked to choose where to save the item—in the default My Folder or one of your custom folders.

Example H: If a custom folder exists, it will be presented as an option each time you click the Add a Folder icon