LIFE Student Library Orientation: How to use library resources -Video tutorials

The library catalog contains records for where to find all of the materials we physically own in the library: books, movies, board games, etc. It also contains links to all the e-books and streaming documentaries we own. We share this catalog with libraries around the world which allows us to get print items we don't own from other libraries, but this doesn't apply to e-books.

Academic Search Premier is a general database that contains both popular and scholarly articles from a variety of disciplines and sources. Great place to start if you need to confirm the viability of a topic.

The tips in this video will apply to most other EBSCO databases, including SocINDEX, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and more. Subject specific databases may have some special features like unique limiters, but otherwise they will function the same way. The name of the database will be listed above the search bar:

Business Insights Global is a business-focused database that includes case studies, company and industry reports, SWOT analysis reports, market share reports, statistics, and journal and news articles. You can locate information organized by country, company, or industry.

Citing sources correctly is important to any research project, whether it be a paper, presentation, or speech. Citation styles govern more than just the 'Works Cited' page. They provide guidance on citations, in-text citations, formatting the paper, title pages, and more. Each style has slightly different formatting, but most require the same information. The following guides and tools will help you format your projects correctly.

Some articles are full-text in the database you selected to search in. Other times it may be located in one of the other 50 databases we subscribe to. Sometimes you'll find a citation for an article we don't have immediate access to; we can usually get you these as well. This service is part of your affiliation with the university; don't ever pay for access to an article. We can typically get it for you. This will show you how to do that.

When you request an article via Interlibrary Loan, we'll send you an email to notify you that the article is available. Sometimes that email may go to a junk folder. These directions will show you how to log into your ILLiad account from the email as well as from the library website to access your full-text. Remember article requests take about two business days on average, and the staff member responsible works 8-5 Monday-Friday.

​One strategy for research is to use bibliographies to find additional relevant research on a topic. Finding the full-text of a source from a citation often requires a different type of search to locate. Here are the steps:

1. Determine what kind of source it is. Is it a book chapter? A journal article? (Easiest way to do this is to look for a volume or issue number. Then you know it's a journal article!)
2. If it is a book, look in the catalog to see if we own it. If we don't, you need to Interlibrary Loan it. Do so by clicking "Check Availability" and then the "Request Item through Interlibrary Loan/E-Delivery" button. (This will require you to log in use your UD username and password.)
3. If it is an article, use the Journal List to search for the title of the journal to see which database it is in. (Journal titles are usually in italics in APA citations.) Use the rest of the information in the citation to locate it in the correct database. If the journal is indexed in a database, but we don't have access to the full-text, use Find It to request the title. If it's not in a database, use Interlibrary Loan to request the article. (Use the Article link under the New Requests menu on the left side.)

As a student, faculty, or staff member at UD, you have access to more than the general non-university attending public in Google Scholar. In order to get access you need to edit your settings within Google Scholar. Here are the steps outlined in the video below:

1. Google "Google Scholar"
2. On the Google Scholar home page, click on the menu in the upper left hand corner (three lines).
3. Click on "Settings"
4. Click "Library Links"
5. Type in "University of Dubuque" in the search box and hit enter. Check the box next to University of Dubuque as it appears beneath the search box, and click "save"
6. You will be directed back to the Google Scholar search page where you can begin searching. Now you will see "Find It" links next to some of the articles in the results list, which will take you either to a database that contains the full text or to an option to request the article through interlibrary loan. *Note: if there is a "view full text" link directing you to ScienceDirect, this link will not work. Request the article through interlibrary loan instead if this is the case.

Background research is an important step in choosing and narrowing a topic. Doing a simple Google search is one way to get started, but the library also has a few encyclopedia type databases that will give you a basic overview of your topic.