Essential Guide for Students: Search FindIT

You may be asked to log in to see the results screen. Use your Melbourne Polytechnic username and password.

(For staff, your username is usually in the format FirstnameLastname (ie johnsmith) and this is the username and password you would use for Melbourne Polytechnic devices, email, Wi-Fi, etc. 

For students, use your student number with an S in the front and and your current Melbourne Polytechnic password. This is the password you would use for Moodle or your Melbourne Polytechnic email account.)

If you need your password reset call ICT on 9269 8488

Review your results list by looking for relevance in the items you've found.

Check:

1. Titles: are they what you need?
2. Subjects: do they match the information you hope to find?
3. Publication information: is it recent enough for you?
4. Status: Is it available online or on campus?

If you decide that the contents of your search results list meet your needs, start selecting individual items from the list.
However, if you are not satisfied with the quality or usefulness of items in your search results list, try the strategies on the Refine Your Search page.

There are many techniques you can use to refine your list of search results.

Try:

• Reviewing your keywords: are there other ways of expressing, in words, what you are searching for?
• Limiting the date range of your results: perhaps you might look for articles published within the past five years, or so?
• Limit the source type: consider if there is a specific publication type that will benefit you - book, journal, report?
• Do you know of any important authors in your subject?  Ask around ... find out, then search for works written by this person.

These and other techniques for refining your FindIT search can be found on the Refine Your Search page.