Introduction to Library Research

Using the drop-down menu under ALL SUBJECTS, find your specific subject and it will list appropriate databases. Or use OMNI to search several databases at once.

How can books help you find articles? Well, starting with your textbook, take a look at the "further references", "selected readings" or the bibliography at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book. Often, there are references to articles or other books about the same subject.

The same strategy can work for articles:  check out the references in those first few articles you find. These may lead to books for your paper.

Google your topic and you are likely to retrieve millions of hits. Unfortunately, you don't have time to go through them, and more than likely they are not academic in nature. How can you limit your search right away to scholarly sources? Choose a database! The databases available on the library's website (sorted by subject) allow you to limit your search to academic sources (also called "peer-reviewed"), so right away, you can eliminate sources you can't use.

Google Scholar, however, will have scholarly sources; be aware that they may not be peer-reviewed. You can also use it if you already have a citation, and want to know if Lakehead has the full-text/access to the article/book.