Making the most of the digital library

10 December 2020

Over the winter break and throughout the rest of the year, the digital library is available to you to find information on your subject areas. You will find different formats of material including ebooks, journal articles, newspaper articles, reports, tv programmes and drama productions. As part of the UWL Study Guide, we've put together these hints and tips to help you get the most out of the Digital Library.

Limiting to only full text on LibSearch

LibSearch is a great starting point to find material for your topics. To narrow down to just digital material, select the 'full text online' option on the left-hand menu. There are other useful ways of filtering your search as well, including by publication date, format and discipline.

Accessing eBooks

EBooks can be read online and, for some, downloaded for a maximum of 3 days. Reading online is a good option for you and will allow you to access features, including searching within the book for your keywords, adding notes and, for our VLEBooks, a read aloud function. Some eBooks have a reservation system, join the queue and you will be emailed as soon as the eBook is available for you.

Finding additional material

As well as searching LibSearch, have a look at the databases on the A-Z list of databases. You can filter by subject to find the most relevant databases for you. The databases are where you will find formats like reports, data sources, TV programmes and drama productions. The database description will let you know what is covered by the database.

Successful searching

Have a look at our literature review guide for tips on putting together successful searches of the Digital Library.

Creating in-text citations and reference lists

Within your notes, record the publication details of where the information is coming from to make your referencing easier to do when you come to completing your assignments. For all your referencing needs, check out our online support.

For more useful information on the digital library, check out the UWL study guide.