Library Search
The Library Search Links to an external site. tool lets you search across many different facets of the library collection.
When you run a search you will see results categorized into the following areas:
- Everything Links to an external site.: This tab will show you some of the results from a search that come up in the other areas as well as the number of results in each area.
- Catalog Links to an external site.: Here you will find all the materials held by the library including books, videos, journals, and more.
- Articles Links to an external site.: This search looks inside of all those books and journals (and more) to identify individual scholarly journal articles, book chapters, newspaper articles, etc.
- Databases Links to an external site.: Here you will find specialized search engines that focus on a particular subject area or type of material.
- Online Journals Links to an external site.: Links to all of our electronic serial publications.
- Guides and More Links to an external site.: Research guides and web sites created by librarians to help with your research.
Let’s take a closer look at a couple of these categories that are especially important for graduate students.
Databases
Most subject areas will have specialized disciplinary research databases that will become your go-to place for searching the literature in your field. Database range in types but most are in the following three categories:
- Subject-specific scholarly literature databases such as PubMed, JSTOR, Engineering Village, or the Philosopher’s Index.
- Multidisciplinary literature databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus.
- Special formats databases such as those with digitized archival materials.
Later on, you’ll want to take the time to identify the major disciplinary databases in your field by browsing databases Links to an external site. on the library website or consulting our research guides.
Guides & More
Library experts have created a wide range of research guides Links to an external site. covering all of the academic fields with programs here at U-M, as well as on technology topics like podcasting and citation management. These are an excellent place to learn what the key library resources are in your subject area, like the top databases, encyclopedias, and more.