Literature Search

Literature Search is the search of sources focused on a selected topic. The product of literature search is a list of specialized literature on a specific topic based on a user’s request. The list refers to existing sources of information (books, articles in magazines, almanacs, etc.). This service is most often used by high school and university students writing scientific papers, essays, or theses, or by researchers acquiring primary documents. Literature search is a special library service, which is why it is a paid service.

The Regional Library in Žilina charges for literature search (in accordance with the price list):

  • processing within 7 days – 5,00 €
    • within 7 days with the use of foreign databases documents – 7,00 €
  • processing within 24 hours – 10,00 €
    • within 24 hours with the use of foreign databases documents – 12,00 €

What to do when requesting literature search in the Regional Library in Žilina?

The main condition is to be a registered library user with a valid library card.

It is suitable to visit the Scientific Literature Department (1st floor) personally – it is where the literature search workplace is located.

The user must fill out a Literature Search Request Form (the form for download or one online form):

  • Topic title – in the case of final thesis, one must fill out the whole thesis title (if the name of your thesis is Online Communication in a Selected Company, you should also write down the selected company or at least the company’s focus).
  • One of the most important things when requesting literature search is the right key words. Key words are used when searching for informational sources and are the key to a good quality literature search. If the key words are insufficient, the following may happen:
    • no or little number of key words = insufficient possibilities to find sources, so there will be little results which may be irrelevant,
    • only general terms = the resulting list may contain too many documents which reference the topic partly or do not contain detailed information,
    • narrowly specified terms = when searching for narrowly specified terms, the problem of insufficient amount of literature, or none at all, arises.
  • Name and email – for definite identification of the user and the final literature search sending.
  • Date – important to schedule the literature search.

The lower part of the form serves for document selection:

  • there are two kinds of available documents: books and magazine articles – you can choose one, but we recommend both options,
  • given you have time restriction of sources, you are to write down the “oldest” document year possible,
  • sources in English or other languages are acquired from foreign databases, so the key words must be in English or the other languages,
  • we browse:
    • the Collective Catalogue of Slovak Libraries – which means that the searched sources are available in Slovakia, however, there is no guarantee that they are available in our library. There is an option to request literature search from the Regional Library in Žilina collection only.

Note: We do not have access to foreign EBSCO resources, as the nationwide license of this database was canceled in 2017. Access to foreign GALE resources has been canceled since January 2022, as the nationwide license of this database has also expired.

Example of a correctly filled out literature search form with an example of the result sources:

príklad dobrá rešerš

Example of an insufficiently filled out literature search form:

príklad zlá rešerš

 What to do after acquiring literature search results?

  • You can find literature search records in our catalogue
    • You may search for books by the title or the author, or do a combined search by ISBN,
    • individual articles are not individually categorized, therefore one must search for the title of the periodical which the article is in. After opening the record, you may check the periodical’s years and issues which are available in our library,
  • if you do not have time to search the catalogue on your own, you may request preparation of selected literature search documents in the Scientific Literature Department for the fee of 0,20 €/1 document – book, article, online source,
  • if you are interested in books/articles which are not available in our collection, you may use another service of ours – Interlibrary Loan Service (ILS).