Understand What HOLLIS Is
HOLLIS is two databases in one.
It combines the extensive contents of our library catalog, the record every item owned by every Harvard Library with those of another, large and multidisciplinary database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles.
Think of HOLLIS as a discovery platform -- a way to search panoramically across subjects, languages, time periods, and information formats.
In HOLLIS, you'll only get at articles by using the default "Catalog & Articles" option. That's the most common way users approach HOLLIS: they take a wide-angled approach to their information seeking and work to sharpen their focus from there.
Know How to Build Good Searches in HOLLIS
Creating search strings with some of the techniques below can help you get better results up front.
Take Control of Your HOLLIS Search Results
While the broad and panoramic approach to searching HOLLIS can be mind-opening, you can sometimes find yourself overwhelmed by either the numbers or types of results your search returns.
When that happens, try one of these easy tricks to bring your results into sharper focus:
Limit your search results set just to the items listed in as BOOKS or BOOK CHAPTERS
- Your numbers will immediately get smaller. And with book chapters, you may discover a great resource that you might not have seen by relying solely on the titles of books.
Limit your search results set to items that are identified as PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES.
- You'll eliminate newspaper and magazine materials as well as books, of course, but you'll also raise the visibility of scholarly journal articles in what displays.
Think about limiting your results to publications from the last 5, 10, 15, or 20 years.
- By doing so you'll get a snapshot of the most recent research trends and scholarly approaches in a field (or around a particular issue).
Getting PDFs From Us
When an article you find in HOLLIS is not owned at Harvard, or is available in a printed journal volume but not online, you can ask us to make a PDF for you through a service called Scan and Deliver.
We'll send you an email when it's ready for downloading, typically between 1 and 4 days after you place the request.
Scan and Deliver is also an option if you want up to two chapters of any Harvard-owned book digitized for your use.
