Skills Start: Get Searching

You can use Library search to locate physical and digital resources.

As a student at Staffordshire University, you may borrow up to 17 items. Full details regarding borrowing entitlements are available on the Library website.

How do I decide which books to read?

You need to learn to evaluate the books you read. Here are a few things to look for:

• Scope - What is the purpose of the book - education, advertising, entertainment?
• Breadth - What aspects of the subject are covered? Is the book focused on a narrow area or does it include related topics?
• Depth - What is the level of detail provided about the subject? This may depend on the kind of audience for which the resource has been designed. The book could be aimed at A Level, undergraduate or postgraduate students for example.
• Content - Is the information fact or opinion?
• Sources - Are sources within the book listed so they can be verified?
• Authority - What is the authority, expertise or credentials of the author?
• Currency - When was the book last revised? This may give an indication of the book's durability.

The following websites offer further guidance on evaluating books:

• Colorado State University: book evaluation checklist

Google Scholar is a fantastic tool to search for journal articles and all kinds of academic resources.

Setting up Google Scholar with Staffordshire University links

You can configure Google Scholar to recognise content we subscribe to as well as having access to thousands of free high quality (open access) online journal articles.  Once you do this then in the results list Google Scholar will display a link when it finds content we subscribe to and will take you directly to that content.

Our guide to Google Scholar has instructions on how to do this, plus help on using an advanced search.

You might wish to search for freely available information using the links suggested at Open Access - Research Publishing - Library at Staffordshire University (staffs.ac.uk)