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Research 101: Great Library and Ontario Courthouse Libraries Catalogue User Guide

What Is a Search Scope?

Search Scopes are useful search strategies that can make most searches more specific. The following search scopes are available in the Great Library and Courthouse Libraries Catalogue: Library Catalogue, LSO CPD Materials and All Libraries. The first two search scopes are found as soon as you begin typing into the search bar.

 

All three search scopes are found in the Advanced Search:

 

Search Scopes

The "Library Catalogue" search scope searches everything in the Great Library and Courthouse Libraries Catalogue holdings. This includes

  • Books, journals and other print materials
  • e-Books and e-journals
  • Online materials from Law Society of Ontario continuing professional development (CPD) programs
  • Digital CPD program materials from other providers
  • Websites

Use this search scope when you want to see a broad range of resources for your search topic.

Please note: Only Law Society of Ontario licensees, their agents and licensing candidates have access to Lexis+, Westlaw Canada, vLex, Proview, HeinOnline and Rangefindr (brought to you by LiRN). Most of these databases can be accessed only in the library. HeinOnline and Rangefindr can be accessed remotely.

The "LSO CPD Materials" search scope searches the full text of 

  • Materials from Law Society of Ontario continuing professional development (CPD) programs (from 2004 onwards) 
  • Digitized materials from CPD programs of other providers 

This full-text search only searches the first 10,000 words of each catalogued item. For individual LSO CPD articles, a full-text search would cover the entire article. However, because CPD materials from other providers combine all the articles from one program/conference into one catalogued item, a full-text search of such materials might not search the entire item.

 

 

The "All Libraries" search scope:

  • Limits your search to a particular library (Great Library or any one of the Courthouse Libraries) 
  • Allows you to select All Libraries (the default setting is All Libraries)