HOLLIS
HOLLIS is Harvard's library catalog for books, journal articles, and lots more.
HOLLIS Videos
My colleague Jonathan who works with Harvard Extension students made these great short videos on how to use HOLLIS. They apply not only to Extension work but to everybody:
HOLLIS Pro Tips
Thanks to my librarian colleagues who wrote these HOLLIS tips:
1. Understand what it is.
HOLLIS combines the extensive contents of our library catalog, the record of every item owned by every Harvard Library with those of another, large and multidisciplinary database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles.
When you search "everything" searching both of these databases together, at once. For better or for worse, "everything" is our system default.
2. Know how to work it.
Creating search strings with some of the techniques below can help you get better results up front. "Boolean" below is the name for a type of formal search logic that you can use with HOLLIS and other databases.
3. Take control of your 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:
- Limit your Everything search results set just to the items listed in the LIBRARY CATALOG.
Your numbers will immediately get smaller. Keep in mind, though, that the results will be heavily weighted toward book-length studies.
- Limit your Everything 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).
