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Library Essentials

Finding Information

Over the search bar on the main page, select books and type the name of the book.

Avoid searching for long titles and adding punctuation. We recommend using as search terms part of the title and the surname of one of the authors.

Example:

CHATFIELD, Tom., 2022. Critical thinking : your essential guide. 2nd. Sage Publications.

  • recommended search terms: critical thinking chatfield

If a book in your search results is also available as an eBook, under the book details a field called online access will show a direct link called “click here for eBook”. Simply click the link and follow the shibboleth login process (student number and password). 

Over the search bar on the main page, select library resources and type the title of the journal (don’t forget to use the full title).

If available, the journal’s search bar will show on the results page (see here)

You can search within the publication directly by using the search bar. Note that this feature will only allow you to search the exact title. 

If you simply want to browse through issues of the journal, click on the journal then ‘full text access’ and select the database. You will see a new page with all the Issues available. Select the year of choice and start browsing. 

When looking for a specific article, go to the main page search bar, select library resources and type the title of the article. 

Remember to limit your search: select full text and peer reviewed. Limiting the publication date will help you find the newer and up to date publications.

When doing a general search, remember to use relevant keywords to the topic. If the keyword used is still not enough, try using the related topics suggestions located at the top of the page

All exam papers are available via Moodle. To access them, you just need to log on to your Moodle account. They are divided by programme, course and modules. If you cannot find one at a specific time of year, note that not all modules run every semester.

Solutions are not provided but your lecturer might be willing to share the answers with the class.

Dissertations and research projects by DBS students can be found on eSource, the college’s institutional repository. 

You can search eSource using the search bar located in the top right corner of the page. 

A useful way of searching on eSource is using the different communities and its collections. Select which community you wish to browse (e.g. ‘Masters dissertations’). On each communities page you can browse by subject or see the recently added submissions.

Under each community’s page you also have the ability to search by issue date, author, titles, supervisor, subjects. 

There’s no need to log-in to view content on eSource. Some dissertations have restricted access due to the age of the work. This means that they can only be viewed on-campus.

Use your Reading List

By accessing your reading you can see all the core books, supplementary reading, journals and articles recommended by your lecturer. 

Select your programme, course and module. 

By clicking on an item, you can see their location on the library (classmark), their loan period and how many copies we have available on the shelves. 

If a book is available as an eBook, just click on the e-resource icon and it should take you directly to the book.

Problems Finding Resources

If you cannot find the resource please contact the library. We may be aware of resources to search that you may not have considered. 

You can suggest the library to purchase a book you cannot locate.

 

Request access from the author directly.

You can request access from the author by emailing them or through the repository you found the item. They may send you a copy of their article if it's for research purposes.

Google Scholar has links to freely available resources. Be careful - sometimes the resources do require institutional access.

Further, if you search for an article that was useful to you in your research on Google Scholar. When you find said article, there is a link showing all of the sources that have cited that article.

Some of these will be accessible to you and others will not. If there is an article you do not have access to but believe it is very important for your research, reach out to the library and we will help you as best we can. 

This can help you further expand your reference list for your topic and will be even more up-to-date as these are the articles that have been written since said article that have referenced said article. 

You can always try searching the public libraries here in Ireland if we don't have a copy of the book here at DBS. You can find more information on searching the Dublin City Public Library here.

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