Early Childhood Education

About OCtopus

OCtopus is the Library's search engine. It is similar to Google but requires more attention to your search terms, filters, and overall search strategy. Most of the content in OCtopus is considered 'academic' but results also include popular content such as articles from magazines and newspapers.

Consider using a tool like OCtopus, similar to how you would shop for something online. For example, if trying to buy a pair of pants from an online clothing store you might narrow your search to jeans, you might add the size, perhaps a particular colour of denim, whether they are a particular style or cut, etc. This will narrow your results to all the options that fit your need. 

Parts of OCtopus

1. Advanced Search: use to add more fields to your search; this will help you keep your different concepts straight
2. Research Starters: these built-in encyclopedia articles will give a brief overview of broad topics
3. Click here to have a quick preview of the article or book you want to look at
4. Change the publication date of items you see with this slider: very helpful for gathering recent information!
5. Check off "News" to see only newspaper articles: try the different resource types as well!
6. More filters are below if you scroll down
7. The method to access the item will always be in the top left, whether it is a PDF, "Full-text finder," or "Retrieve Catalogue Item"
8. Keep track of this information: you will need it for citations!
9. Abstract: this is a summary of what the article is about
10. DOI: a digital object identifier is a unique string of numbers to help people find articles. You will need it for citations!
11. Cite button: use with caution! Check citation against Library Citation Style guides
12. Permalink: click here to get a stable URL to the item: the URL in the bar at the top of the page will not work later