1. Start with the information provided in tertiary sources!

• Look up specific titles of books in Primo, or journal titles (not article titles) in Primo Journal Search.
• Use the entries in subject encyclopedias to identify the academic fields interested in the topic; then identify the appropriate subject database(s) to search.
• Use the vocabulary in the subject encyclopedia entries as search terms in databases.

2. Mine the bibliographies and footnotes in other secondary sources. You may find one secondary source that is not quite right for your project; however, it may cite another scholarly source that would be just right!
3. When searching Primo or a database, pay attention to the subject headings in your results. You can use the vocabulary or click to do a new search for that heading. You'll be surprised at what you discover this way! 
4. Select the best sources, not just the most convenient sources. This may mean requesting a book from SUMMIT and/or an article from interlibrary loan, both of which take about two to five days to arrive.

In most cases, it's better to search subject databases to identify articles and then use Primo to link to the materials in these e-journal collections. However, if you have a topic that is very multidisciplinary, searching these electronic journal collections might be useful.

Depending on the database, there are a few strategies to find resources written in German:

You can:

• conduct your search in English and then, once you have a list of results, click on the Search Options and then from the Language list, select German. 
• search using German search terms.
• locate the Thesaurus or Subject Terms and appropriate German terms.

Be aware of databases that auto correct German words to similar English words.

Google Scholar can help you find articles which have cited an article that you have found. Frequent citation is often (but not always!) a marker for a particularly influential scholarly work.

Step 1: When looking at search results, check for the 'Cited by X' link underneath each result. That will tell you how many subsequent articles (that Google Scholar is aware of) have cited this particular article or book.

Step 2: Click that link, and you will be taken to a new set of results, all of which have cited the original article, which will still be listed at the top of the page. 

If your article is not available at Collins Library, you've got another option for getting it. Use Tipasa, our interlibrary loan service.

Tipasa is linked to your library account so you'll need to log in to use it.

Once you are logged in, either go directly to Tipasa and manually enter the information, or, if you're using a database, look for a shortcut link to automatically fill out the form:

Allow at least a week for the article to come. If your article is delivered in electronic format, you'll receive an email with a link to follow as soon as it's arrived.