Resource Help: Supersearch

These helpsheets will guide you as you access your account, see what you have on loan, how to request an item, how to renew a loan and any searches you have saved.

Please note that you can only renew a loan once.

Do use keywords or topics when searching.

Use the filters when you get your search results to narrow down the options.

To search for a journal title use the Journal Browse button on the top menu.

To search for a particular article, use the fetch item option on the top menu.

If you are searching for a title, just enter the title.

• Don't add extra details such as author, subtitle or date in the search box - use the advanced search when you have a lot of specific information 

• Don't use punctuation. The search ignores punctuation and symbols, such as these: @ $ % & ( ) - : " " or '  

• Don't use filler or linking words such as and, or, the, a, an, in, on, are, is or I

Take care with Acronyms.  Terms like NASA or WHO will generally find results, but Australian Acronyms such as CSIRO are less successful. If you don't find what you are looking for, try spelling it out in full.

If you get no results

Check your typing and spelling. You can also try using American spelling, such as organization instead of organisation.

Remember, this is not a Web Search - use a search engine or type a URL in the address bar to find a webpage.

Filter appear on the right hand side of your search results.  Select filters to narrow down the results shown by:

• Subject
• Author (shown as Author/Creator)
• Format, such as book, newspaper article or audiovisual
• Date ranges

You can use several filters together. Filters in use show at the top of the filters column. Use the X next to the filter name to turn off a filter.

Use the crossed out check box next to a filter to exclude all the items in that category.

If a search for a video does not find what you are looking for, you can search on our four streaming video databases.

Find particular resource types

The advanced search is useful if you know exactly what you are looking for, such as a particular book or article.

• Add one or two title keywords and an author surname
• You can choose an item type from the drop down menu to limit to articles, books and so on.
• You can also limit by language and date.

In addition to search results which includes books, ebooks (online), videos, streamed videos (online), journals, journal articles and other text resources, our resource recommender will display the most relevant Library Guides and, if there are other resources that will not show results in the list, they will also show in this space. 

These will be more general than the search results, but do give you extra options.

Supersearch will not find results using your course name as a search term. 

• For course specific resources, use Blackboard.  

• To find resources to help with assignments use a keyword or two on the topic.

Unfortunately Australian Standards are not indexed in Supersearch.  Search directly in our Standards database, using Number (no date), title or keyword.

Australian news content is included in Supersearch. 

• Try the Newspaper articles filter
• For TV news use the Audio Visual filter
• Under Subject there is a filter for Australia for most news. You can use this with either of the filters above.
• You can also search by newspaper or program name, dates, or name - name included the name of the a person when a news report is about them, or the writer/interviewer, for example.
• You can try the advanced search as well - this will get more specific results.

There is sometimes a delay between TV news and current affairs broadcast date and it appearing in Supersearch.  You can search EduTv directly if you cannot find what you are looking for.

Supersearch does not include SMTAFE documents such as policies or procedures, or other organisational information.

• Students use our webpage

• Staff use the Intranet/QMS