Library Search can be used to look for print and online materials. This includes books, journals, journal articles, conference proceedings and a lot more. So if you're checking to see if we subscribe or have access to a particular journal then Library Search is a good place to start.
There is another resource - Browzine - which you can use to look for journals, add journals to your personal bookshelf (once you've logged in), and also add articles. These two resources complement each other rather than being absolute substitutes.
Although there will be some books which are completely about the topic you're interested in, e.g. ABC of Diabetes; Cancer Nursing and so on, most of the time you won't be able to find a book which is only covering a single topic.
This means that when you're using a more general text e.g. Fundamentals of nursing; The Marsden Manual and so on, you will need to make use of the index at the back of the book in order to find the pages / sections which are explicitly covering the topic you need to know more about.
Some large books may be divided into thematic sections: 'Managing the patient journey'; 'Supporting the patient with human functioning', and within those sections there'll be more detailed parts, 'Assessment and discharge' with further subsections, 'Inpatient assessment and the process of care', 'Observation', and more.
Because of this it's really important to use the index (and, if it's detailed enough, the contents list) to determine what part of the book you need to look at. Sometimes you will need to read an entire book from cover to cover over the course of a module (or programme) but on other occasions you'll just need to dip into the specific sections which are relevant.
The more you already know about a topic, the more likely it is that you'll be able to focus on particular sections of books rather than always having to read the whole thing.
Final tip! Starting out at undergraduate level it's normal to have more books than articles in your reference list; as you move through the different stages of your programme you should find that the number of books in your reference lists go down, and the number of articles go up.
When it comes to web pages, they should not make up the majority of your references. Websites are generally not of a high enough academic quality and you should not rely on them to provide you with most of your information.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
The PowerPoints below are sections of a larger presentation - they have been separated out to make them easier to view individually. If you would like to download the whole presentation (rather than having a number of short ones) then you can do that via the link at the bottom of the box.
