Summon: For Users (English)

Starting your research in Summon is great because allmost all materials from throughout the library are being searched from the single search box.

A search on cat dog fish will retrieve items that contain all three words in the citation and/or in the full text of the item.

Searching is as easy as Search - Refine - Get...

• Search: enter your search terms

• Refine: use the filters and facets on the left side of your search results. For example, maybe you only want to view scholarly material

• Get: click on an item to access it

Refining your search to get the best material for your research can also be done by adding more keywords to your search.

Just like searching the open web, you can indicate a phrase by putting quotation marks around the words.  The query "teacher education" will find results with that phrase.

An advanced search lets you be more specific with your search.  For example, you can tell Summon to look for the author "Sally Smith", so you can focus your search on materials by "Sally Smith" rather than about "Sally Smith".

Click on the Options link in the right of the keyword search box to do a advanced search.

Some things are so special that they need to be searched with commands.

Proximity search

"yeast bread" ~ 10

finds material where "yeast" and "bread" appear within 10 words of each other

Are you ready to start using the Summon service to do research at your library? This video will explain the basics of searching for content, refining the results using facets and filters, accessing content, and saving citations. Your library’s Summon interface will look somewhat different than this, but the tools and features are common to the Summon service at most libraries.

The Summon service contains billions of citations, and when you do a search in the basic Summon search box, you may get more results than you can easily work with. That’s why the Advanced Search tool is so powerful: You can customize the search to discover certain keywords in specific metadata fields (like author, or subject), filter out content types you don’t need, and much more.

Not able to reach a librarian at the moment and having trouble defining your research topic?

Keep your eye on the right side of your search results, when you do a search you may be presented with helpful information for defining your research topic:

• An overview of your research topic
• Contact information for a librarian knowledgeable about the topic
• Related topics that might better fit your research question
• Research guides providing insight into the topic

Do you still need help? Please see all options to contact us here

In Summon, you will find almost all the printed and electronic materials available to the library. The library's own materials amount to more than 380 million records in Summon, and if you check the box: "Add results beyond your library's collection", you search among almost 1 billion items.

What does Summon not contain?

• Danish magazine articles or newspaper articles are rarely here. Instead, use the database Infomedia or bibliotek.dk.
• Research published at the Danish and foreign universities and educational institutions. Instead, use this list.
• Law and regulatory matters. Instead, use this LibGuide.
• Standards and patents. Find guides here.
• Chemical, mathematical and medical formulas. You may want to use some of the following databases.
• Company and market information, Instead use this LibGuide.