Subject Resources Pages

I've probably mentioned them before, and I expect I'll mention them again:

Subject Resources Pages.

Your library probably has them. Most academic libraries I know of usually do. Your liaison librarians (who get paid to know the best places to find information on your subject) have put together a page of good resources for your field of study.

These usually include a list of the top textbooks and reference books held by the library, some really useful web pages and a number of databases where you'll find the best journal articles for your assignments.

You should take a darn good look at your library's homepage. It may be tucked away under a link to "library guides" or it may be right out in the open as an "A-Z of Subject Guides", or something similar.

And, here's the kicker, since most good academic librarians have them, if you can't find what you want in one library you can probably find it in another one.

For example, I had a student from a different university come to me wanting to know the best databases to use for a hospitality subject. Since we don't have Hospitality as a course in our university, I couldn't look up our subject guides to help answer her question. I could, though, take a look at her university library's web page and find their guide for the subject.

Most libraries have really good online guides and assistance which are available to whoever might take the time to look, so if you're serious about researching your subject you should examine a few different libraries' web pages and see what they can offer you - especially if you are a distance education student doing most of your work online