Most academic library catalogs are similar in that they organize library materials by subject (Library of Congress created these), author, and title (to name a few organizational categories). Identifying relevant subjects can be particularly useful in faith integration research - when you find a relevant subject, you can get everything in the catalog that shares that subject. To learn how to find subjects relevant to your research topics, see this guide:
Finding Library Resources by Subject
Subjects in the library catalog often have subheadings that can be quite useful, sometimes more useful than the main subject. For items possibly relevant to faith integration, try looking for these subheadings once you've discovered a relevant main subject:
The graphic below shows some of the results for an 'economics' subject search - note the subheadings.
General Tips:
WorldCat allows you to search the collections of more than 10,000 libraries around the world. To request items, look up the publication information in WorldCat, then fill out the Interlibrary Loan Request form on the APU Libraries web site. Requested items will be held for pick-up by Azusa campus students, staff, and faculty - an email will be sent when the item is available. Click here for the subscription version of WorldCat (has a different interface and search features).
NOTE: Please check APU's holdings and LINK+ before using this option - you cannot use interlibrary loan if APU or LINK+ has the item you want.
The following tips can be used with most of the databases that you find on the All Databases page of the APU Libraries website.
Here is an example of a search in the ATLA Religion Database:
Here is an example of a search in the PsycINFO database:
General Tips:
Search Terms
While it is true that you can enter an entire sentence into a search engine like Google and get results, it is still a good idea to think about the search terms you use. Here are some tips about search terms:
Search Engine Features
There are several search engines out there, including Google, Bing, and others. Get in the habit of exploring the search engines that you use. Here are some things to look for:
Selected Websites
These are various compilations of search engines that can be used for academic research.
Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research, including articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Look for the 'APU Library FT Finder' link off to the right of results - these will take you into an APU journal article database where you can usually view the full text of the article.
Note: If you are off-campus, you will need to go through the following steps to see which items are available through APU databases: