Strategies to help you find books and e-books
All Formats
There are many ways to locate sources that are relevant to your research topic.
- Search by doing a simple keyword search or by typing in a book title in the Catalyst search box above and browse your results to find a few books that look relevant.
- Open up a Catalyst record for one or more of these books and scroll down the page to look at the "Subjects." You can click on the subjects in blue to view additional related material.
- Do a virtual browse at the very bottom of a book record in Catalyst.
- Look at the bibliography of books and articles you have already identified as useful. Authors may cite other useful sources on similar topics to yours.
Finding Articles
An easy way to get started searching for articles is by using the Catalyst search tab above. You can search by keyword or by article title. You can also use databases like JSTOR or a search engine like Google Scholar to find articles. These are just a couple of the places where you can find articles.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Most journals are included from their first issue until 5 years ago. - ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Search all of the ProQuest databases available at Carleton. - Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Contains scholarly journals, trade publications, and magazines from across the disciplines and from popular culture. Much of the content is available in full text. An ELM Database. - Social Sciences Citation Index This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Available through the Web of Knowledge. Search through current and historical literature in the social sciences, and perform cited reference searching to see who has cite a particular document. Covers 1898 - current.
Note: To do cited reference searching, click on "cited reference search," fill in an author's last name and publication date, figure out which of the resulting list of citations match the work you're looking for, and then "finish search" to see who has cited that work. - Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
Use Google's special academic search to locate scholarly articles from across disciplines. On campus, the preferences are set to indicate the Library's full-text access to what you find (links on the right). Use the "cited by" link to see who has cited a particular work you're interested in.
Finding Books Beyond Carleton
- WorldCat This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citation information)
Search for library materials, especially books, that Carleton may not have. You can include searches for articles if desired. When you find something you want, order it through ILL by clicking on the "Request item through InterLibrary Loan" link.
- Interlibrary LoanInterLibrary Loan (ILL) is a service that allows Carleton students, staff, and faculty to request items that Carleton and St. Olaf do not own from other libraries.
