NPR2067 - Literature Searching

Databases are a way of finding journal articles (and other material such as book chapters, conference papers, theses etc.) on a particular topic area. They are not limited to the collections at the University of Northampton library and are often international. Information contained in databases will be full text or bibliographic:

1. Full text – the record includes a link to the electronic full text of the material which you can download or view online.
2. Bibliographic – the record includes reference details (e.g. author, article title, journal name, volume and page numbers) but not the whole text of the article.

Each database may look different, but the principles of searching them are essentially the same. You will usually find that you get the option to carry out either a simple or advanced search. Use a range of keywords to help focus your search on the results that are relevant to what you are looking for.

You can access the databases by using the links below, or following the ‘A-Z Databases’ tab on the menu at the top of NELSON.

These short videos have been created to help you access and use the databases to search for relevant information for your assignments. Descriptions about what the databases cover and links to access them are available on the A-Z Database list.

Click on the information icon next to the title of the video, to find out more about what the video demonstrates.