Finding high quality resources shows you have properly researched your assignment and illustrates your understanding of the topic.
Use the tools below to find scholarly material for your assignment. This will give you much better results than by using search engines like Google.
Unit reading list
A good place to start is your unit reading list, which will include recommended readings and references compiled by your Unit Coordinator. It may include journal articles, book chapters, books, video recordings, or links to websites.
Check your Reading List in My Unit Readings. You may also find a link in your LMS unit.
Library Search
With Library Search you can find books, journal articles, videos and more from the one search box on the Library homepage.
Start off by entering your keywords identified in the planning stage. By default, Library Search looks for results that include all your keywords and sorts them by relevancy. You can also search using Boolean operators or search for a phrase using “ “.
You may find that entering a broad topic in Library Search can return an overwhelming number of results. Use the filters on the left of the screen to refine your results. For example, you could limit your results to only scholarly and peer reviewed journals, or to items published in the last three years.
Once you have found what you want, click on 'Available online', or note down the shelf location for printed books or journals.
Need help with Library Search? Ask our Librarians or see How to use Library Search for search tips and strategies.
Databases
Library Search is a great starting point but you may need to use additional search tools. Library databases are useful when you need to find comprehensive information in your subject area, or specialised resources such as case law, legislation, statistics, company information and newspaper articles.
To select a database to search go to our Databases page and browse by subject, or select from the list
of databases for specialised resources. The Library subscribes to hundreds of databases covering all subject areas.
Once you have selected a database, use the keywords identified in your planning stage to search for your topic.
Finding a known journal article, book or book chapter
Sometimes you will already have a reference to a journal article, book or book chapter. You may have been given this by a lecturer or tutor or you may have seen it in another journal article in the reference list.
If you already have the details of an item, try searching for it in Library Search. Type the title of your journal article or book in Library Search and press enter. If you don’t see the item in the first few results, use the filters on the left of the screen to limit to journal article or book.
If you don’t find the journal article title, try searching for the journal title, and then use the volume, issue and page details to locate the article within the journal.
If you are looking for a book chapter, search for the book title, and then locate the chapter within the book or ebook. Don’t forget to check your unit reading list in My Unit Readings as well, in case your unit coordinator has already found the item for you.
Need help?
Our Librarians can help you identify relevant journals and databases to search in your subject area and build effective search strategies: Ask our Librarians.
