Quick Guide to Volter

Get a library card to the Turku University Library and you will be able to borrow printed materials and log in to Volter. More information on how to obtain a library card for the use of the library can be found on the library's website.

Log in to Volter to receive more search results and check your customer information.

• Check the loans tab to see whether you can renew your loans, when your loans are due and if you have overdue loans.
• Check the requests tab to see your requests and their pick up libraries or to cancel your requests.
• Check the fines tab to see your fines and to pay them online.
• Check the personal details tab to see your contact details and create a four-digit PIN code for self-check machines.

Use your UTU account credentials to log in.

If you do not have a UTU account, log in with your library card number and a password connected to your Volter account. Should you forget your password, you can change it on the login page.

To use the self service check out at the library, you need a four-digit PIN code. You can change your PIN code on the personal details tab of Volter.

You can target your search at different resources:

Default search (Search all materials) combines the searches listed below. University library materials show up at the top of the results list.

Books, journals and theses search returns all university library materials: printed and electronic books, printed and electronic journals, newspapers, databases, videos and theses and dissertations. In addition, the search includes University of Turku's open repository UTUPub.

International articles search returns results from hundreds of different databases with university library access. In addition to scientific journal articles the results include newspaper articles, electronic books and primary sources. All results include a fulltext link. Articles search does not return results from all databases provided by the university library (see Coverage of International articles search below).

Databases search returns information on all the databases to which the library has access. Use the links provided by Volter to access the databases. The databases search doesn't search for articles in the databases.

You can use Boolean operators:

• Add obligatory search terms with an AND operator: traffic AND biking
• Add alternative search terms with an OR operator: biking OR walking
• Group terms together with parentheses: traffic AND (biking OR walking)

You can use special characters:

• Truncate search terms with an asterisk to get all word variations: transport*, walk*
• You can use a question mark to replace a single character: wom?n returns woman, women
• Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "public transportation". You can also truncate inside a phrase "public transport*"
• In International articles search, the maximum number of truncated search terms or phrases is 7.

Advanced search

• You can use truncation, phrase search and AND and OR operators in advanced search as well
• Access advanced search by clicking the Advanced search link on the right side of the basic search bar

You can filter your results list on the right side of the results page. Filters are not perfect: For example, when using the peer reviewed journals -filter you will lose some Finnish journals that actually are peer reviewed.

You can also change the order of the results by enabling the Personalize option on top of the results list. By choosing the most relevant subject fields to your research Volter will put these results on top of the list. You can also ask Volter to prefer newer material. Personalizing will not affect the number of results.

Once you log in to Volter, you can tag search results, that is, to add your own keywords to results. Tags are public and common to all users. You can browse tags on top of the page.

You can save your searches and results as favourites by clicking the pin symbol below the search bar or next to the result. You can find your saved favourites by clicking the same symbol on the right top-corner of the page. You can organize your favourites by adding labels to them.

International articles search retrieves results from hundreds of international databases and open access (OA) archives. Below is a list of the main databases in the various disciplines that are included in Volter's international article search. Other databases are also included in the search.

The library has also acquired a number of databases that are not included in the article search. Please note that one of the main databases in your discipline may not be included in the search. You can access all the databases provided by Turku University Library via the database list. You can also check the list of key databases in your discipline in the subject guide to see if Volter is missing any databases that are relevant to you.

Key databases included in Volter's international article search:

• ABI/Inform 
• ACM Digital Library
• Acta Sanctorum
• Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Collection
• Agricultural & Environmental Science Collection
• American Association for Artificial Intelligence
• American Chemical Society
• American Institute of Physics
• American Mathematical Society
• American Physical Society
• American Society for Microbiology
• Anthropology Online
• APA PsycArticles (EBSCO)
• APA PsycBooks
• Arts & Humanities Database (ProQuest)
• arXiv.org
• ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials (EBSCO)
• Bioline International
• Biological and Agricultural Index Plus (EBSCOhost)
• Biological Science
• BioMed Central
• BioOne Digital Library
• BioScientifica
• BMJ Online
• Brill Biology
• Business Source Complete
• CAB International
• Cairn
• CINAHL (EBSCOhost)
• Company of Biologists
• Computer Science Database
• Computer Source (EBSCOhost)
• Computers and Applied Sciences Complete (EBSCOhost)
• Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science (CPCI-S)
• Design & Applied Arts Index (DAAI) (ProQuest)
• Databasen Kvinnsam (LIBRIS)
• Dialnet
• DOAB
• DOAJ
• Education Database
• Education Source Ultimate
• Elsevier ClinicalKey
• Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals
• Elsevier SD Cell Press
• Emerald
• Engineering (ProQuest)
• Engineering Source (EBSCOhost)
• Environment Complete (EBSCOhost)
• Environmental Science
• ERIC
• Food Science Source (EBSCOhost)
• Future Medicine
• Gallica
• GeoScienceWorld
• GreenFile (EBSCOhost)
• Health & Medical Collection (ProQuest)
• Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
• History of Feminism
• IEEE Electronic Library (IEL)
• IET Digital Library
• iG Publishing
• IngentaConnect
• Institute of Physics (IOP Publishing)
• Journals of the American College of Cardiology (JACC)
• JSTOR
• Karger Publishers
• Knovel Engineering Resources
• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) (ProQuest)
• Linguistics Database (ProQuest)
• Literature Online (LION) (ProQuest)
• LWW Health Library
• Lyell Collection Complete
• Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest)
• McGraw-Hill AccessNeurology
• McGraw-Hill AccessPharmacy
• Medical Database (ProQuest)
• Military Database (ProQuest)
• MIT Press
• NASA Technical Reports Server
• Nature (Springer)
• New England Journal of Medicine
• OpenEdition Journals
• Oxford Journals
• Persée
• Political Science Complete (EBSCO)
• Political Science Database (ProQuest)
• Project Muse Humanities
• ProQuest Central
• ProQuest Pharma Collection
• Psychology Database (ProQuest)
• Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• PubMed / Medline
• Radiological Society of North America
• Religion Database (ProQuest)
• Royal Society of Chemistry
• Sage
• Science & Technology Collection (EBSCOhost)
• ScienceDirect
• Scopus
• Social Science Database (ProQuest)
• SocINDEX With Full Text (Ebsco)
• Sociology Database (ProQuest)
• SPIE journals
• SPORTDiscus with Full Text (EBSCOhost)
• SpringerLink
• Sustainability Reference Center (EBSCOhost)
• Taylor & Francis Online
• Teacher Reference Center
• Technology Collection (ProQuest)
• Thieme Medical Publishers
• Web of Science - Science Citation Index
• Wiley Online
• Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820
• Zentralblatt MATH

Use the databases of your own field when

• you are doing a systematic review or collecting information for other more demanding reviews
• you want to take advantage of the search tools and thesauruses of the database
• you are searching for articles in Finnish (you might want to try Finna's article search)
• you want to use databases that aren't included in Volter's International articles search

You can find databases from your own field

• by searching by database name in Volter
• on the library guides: https://utuguides.fi
• on the database list

• Get to know the guides created by the university library: https://utuguides.fi
• Request a 15 minutes with Volter session to your group or team from the library staff
• Send your questions to library@utu.fi or contact us via the chat that can be accessed from the lower right corner of Volter