Overview

This guide will help you get started with searching, saving, and requesting materials using the Teachers College library's discovery tool, Educat+. Educat+ lets you seamlessly search the library's holdings. Find print and electronic resources, archival materials, and items on course reserve.

Signing In to Your Library Account 

Go to “Menu” in the far right-hand corner of the page and select “Library Card.”

Sign in using “TC Single Sign-On.” 

Under “My Library Card” you can view your:

• Loans
• Requests
• Favorites
• Recent Search History and Saved Searches.

Searching in Educat+: Simple and Advanced Searching

Conducting a Simple Search in Educat+

Type your query into the search box. Use “Refine Your Results” on the left-hand side of the page to filter your search results by:

• Relevance
• Resource Type (articles, books, book chapters, journals, etc.)
• Subject
• Collection
• Creation Date
• Journal Title 
• Language.

Conducting an Advanced Search in Educat+

Select the “Advanced Search” option to the right of the search box.

Narrow or Expand your search through:

• Searching by a specific library collection (including Children’s Books, Curriculum, and Course Reserves) 
• Applying Boolean operators (And, OR, NOT)
• Setting filters to search by title, author, subject etc.

Accessing Materials: Locating Items, Placing Holds, and Submitting ILL Requests

Accessing Items Available Online

Select the link “Available Online” to view the database(s) where the item is located. 

Select a database to access the content (if more than one database is listed, choose the one with the appropriate date range).

Accessing Items Available at the TC Library

Select the link “Available at Gottesman Libraries" to learn more about the item’s location, and the number of copies available in the library’s holdings. Resources from any of the following collections can be pulled from the shelf and checked out of the library:

• Cafe
• Curriculum
• Juvenile
• New Faculty
• New TC Press
• Oversize
• Stacks.

**Materials on Course Reserves can be requested at the circulation desk. Items located in the Closed Stacks can be requested through placing a hold in Educat+.

Placing a Hold

Items in Educat+ listed as “Not Available” (these items are currently checked out of the library) and items listed as “Available at Gottesman Libraries Closed Stacks” can be requested and placed on hold.

Select the link “Not Available” or “Available at Gottesman Libraries Closed Stacks.”

On the item record page, go to “Physical Copies” and sign in to your library account using “TC Single Sign-On.” Once logged on, select “Place a Hold.”

Complete the form and submit the request. You'll be contacted when the item becomes available for pick up.

Submitting Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requests via Educat+

Any item that is not available through TC or Columbia library resources can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. 

After locating the item in Educat+, select “No Online Access” to be taken to the item record. **Note: Items not in the TC library's holdings will only show in your search if you select the option "Expand My Results" (see "Additional Features" and "Expand My Results").

On the record page, go to “How to Get It." Select “Sign in.” 

Once you are logged on, select “Request via Interlibrary Loan”. You will be directed to the “Materials Request” form. 

You will be contacted once your request has been processed. **Note: Requests can also be made by going directly to the materials request form on the library’s “Requesting New Materials” page (the best option if the item's citation does not appear in Educat+).

Additional Features: Expand My Results, Exporting Citations, Favorites and more

Expand My Results

“Expand My Results” lets you find items that are not available in the TC library’s holdings (these items will be listed as “No Online Access” in Educat+). To apply “Expand My Results” to your search, check the box at the bottom of “Refine Your Search.”

Copy links, Save/ Send Citations

Use the icons under "Send To" on the item record page to:

• Copy the items’ permalink (also known as a permanent link)
• Cite the source in a citation style of your choice
• Export citations to Endnote and other reference managers (export to Refworks, Zotero, etc. using “Export to Ris file”).

Favorites

Use the thumbtack to save searches and items to your favorites list.

To save a search to your "Favorites," select the thumbtack underneath the search box labeled "Save Query."

To save an item to "Favorites." select the thumbtack icon beside the row of icons on the results page and/or the thumbtack icon on the item record page.

Select the thumbtack on the upper-right side of the page (beside your name), to view your "Favorites."

Citations: Find Sources Cited in an Article/ Find Sources Citing an Article

Use "Citations" on the bottom of the item record to view the sources cited in the article.

Go to "Citations" at the bottom of the item record page to find sources cited in the article "Cited in This" as well as sources that cite the article "Citing This."