Overview
The purpose of this guide is to:
Help you learn some useful search techniques
Improve your search results
Confidently undertake research using the Library Search or databases
Where should I search?
Library Search is accessible by using the search box on the library website. It searches across a variety of different sources, including some of our key databases, ebooks and physical books, and open access (free) articles.
Library website (basic search) Advanced search
The basic library search can perform surprisingly complex searches, if you're confident in using Boolean operators and other techniques to manipulate the search! Read on to find out more.
Databases are repositories of published material, usually (but not always) based around a broad subject area. Some databases contain full-text articles, others just contain the abstract (a record or overview) of the research, which you could search and try to obtain from elsewhere.
Databases for your subject
We've created subject guides which list recommended databases for your subject.