Library Search: Basics

To search items the Dartmouth Library owns or has access to, use the search at dartgo.org/search.

The dropdown menu to the right of the main search bar is visible when clicking on the magnifying glass; the menu allows for customizing your search.

• Search is the default and includes both physical and electronic items, books, journals, videos, articles and many other formats, and combines what you would expect in a library catalog with content from a large full text search index.
• Available Online will eliminate all physical items from your search.
• To limit to physical items please use the 'Held in Library' facet in the left menu of the results screen.
• Library Catalog includes all physical and electronic items in the Dartmouth Library, including journal and database titles. While we may have online access to books, journals, and databases that appear in this search, selecting this option will not search the text within journals or databases, so it is not particularly useful for finding articles or book chapters. Use the default Search to access articles and book chapters.
• Course Reserves will limit your search to items placed on reserve by a faculty member. To find items specific to a course, search for the course title.
• Worldcat will return results from Worldcat.org and will show which items we have available or will provide a link to request the item using Interlibrary Loan.

The top menu has additional options for focusing your search (expand visible options using the three dots):

• Journal Titles - limits search to keywords in journal titles.
• Database Titles - limit search to keywords in the descriptions of a databases.
• Newspapers - limit search to newspaper articles.
• Browse By - browse by author, title, call number or subject.
• Retrieve Citation - use a DOI or PMID or other citation information to find full-text.
• Curated Collections - collections of items selected by a subject librarian.

To access your account and additional features of the system, click "Sign in" in the upper right corner of the screen. 

• Dartmouth/DHMC faculty, students, staff should click the "Students, Faculty & Staff" or "Students, Faculty, Staff & Alums" link and login with your Dartmouth credentials.
• DHMC & Guests should use the "DHMC & Guests" link and login with your barcode number and password. (If your password does not work, select “reset your password” and follow the instructions below.)
• Alumni should login using the "Alumni" login on the homepage or "Students, Faculty, Staff & Alums" on the Library Search page. (If you need help, view these Dartmouth Alumni Directory Help Tutorials - Log In or visit Alumni IT Support Services.)

DHMC & Guests “Reset your password”. 

1. After selecting “reset your password” enter the barcode as it appears on your Library card (green paper cards for alumni and guests, Dartmouth Library Barcode on the back of DHMC Id’s). NOTE: Do not enter your email address in the second box. Our system will instead use the email that is associated with your account. 
2. You will receive a link in the email associated with your account.
3.  By selecting that link you will be led to a page to create a password for your Library account. 

After logging in you can:

• click your name in the upper right corner to access your account, favorites and search history.
• find a summary of loans, requests, fines/fees and messages.
• quickly renew all checked-out items or renew individual items via the loans tab.
• when looking at an item detail page, you will be able to request the item via a Request link in the Get It section of the page.
• save items to your favorites list by clicking the push pin icon next to an item in a search list or in the upper right corner of the item detail page.
• save your search results by clicking the "Save query" push pin link at the top of the results list.

Create a Self-Check Pin

1. Log into your Library account. 
2. On the “My Account” page, select the “Personal Details” Tab. 
3. To the right, under the default languages, there is a link to “Update Self-Check Pin”
4. Select the link and enter your desired Self-Check pin number.

If you login, search history is now retained between sessions and search history is used for recent search suggestions.

You can turn these features off in the "My Personal Settings" area of your library account.

Login to your account, go to "My Personal Settings" and toggle off the options you wish to disable.

For browsers that support it, the search tool includes a Voice Search Assistant. To use it, simply click on the microphone icon, near the search button (magnifying glass icon).

This tool uses the Google Web Speech API. Clicking it will trigger a pop-up message asking if you will allow it to access your device's microphone. If you choose to allow it, the browser then records audio, listening for a long enough break in the audio and then converting the voice command you have given to a textual search and submitting it. The library and the search tool vendor do not have access to these recordings, but they have to be transmitted to Google in order for the tool to work. To opt out of the tool after allowing it, simply close your browser - the next time you return to the page, you will be asked again if you want to allow the service to work.