GJRC Library Workshop

• Locate books (physical items)
• Scan on Demand
• Mail on Demand
• Physical item pickup (Books to go)
• Request from other libraries (Interlibrary loan)

Omni is the search tool for the Laurier Library’s print and other collections and a subset of our electronic resources. It also contains the print and circulating collections of 18 other Ontario university libraries, which can be requested by Laurier community members for delivery.

• Omni FAQ
• Omni tutorials

In general, after you search Omni, you can use the facets on the left to filter your results. Some common filters include:

• Books and eBooks
• Articles
• Peer-reviewed journals
• Publication date

eBooks

Most the Library's eBooks are catalogued in Omni. However an Omni search will only retrieve eBooks if your search words are in the catalogue record (author, title, subject, abstract, etc.), and NOT the full text. It can sometimes be helpful to search the full text of an eBook collection, particular for more obscure topics. The Library subscribes to eBooks through a large number of eBook collections, so you cannot search all our eBooks at once. However the following two sources are good places to start:

Books not in Omni

While a large percentage of the book titles you might want are likely owned by an Omni library, you may also want to search beyond Omni to see what items you can request through Interlibrary loan.

WorldCat

Records of books and other materials from libraries worldwide.

More Info

Journal articles

Hankivsky, O., Grace, D., Hunting, G., Giesbrecht, M., Fridkin, A., Rudrum, S., Ferlatte, O., & Clark, N. (2014). An intersectionality-based policy analysis framework: critical reflections on a methodology for advancing equity. International Journal for Equity in Health, 13(1), 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0119-x

Books

Zack, N. (2024). Intersectionality: A Philosophical Framework. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197693070.001.0001 

Book chapters

Bishop, S. (2024). The Voices of Hope: A Traveling Miracle. In The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197612460.013.31

Conference proceedings

Ma, L. lEller, Dickson-Deane, C., Raffe, W., Murphy, A. R., & Garcia, J. (2024). Gaming for Equity: The Power of Diversity within Gender and Race in Gamers. 2024 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1109/CoG60054.2024.10645628

Reference sources

Mansager, E. (2022). Spirituality. In: Glăveanu, V.P. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Magazine articles

Addario, Lynsey, and Leila Fadel. Being Muslim in America. National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 233. Washington: National Geographic Partners, 2018.

Primary sources

Abdel Haleem, M. A., trans. The Qurʼan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Videos

Harmoni: Healing Together. London, England: Royal Anthropological Institute, 2021.

Newspaper articles

Hogben, Alia. "The Mixing of Religion and Politics can Become Problematic." Kingston Whig - Standard, A7. Sep 23, 2023.

Letters to the editor

Letter to the editor. "Religion Shouldn't be Forced on Students." Nanaimo News Bulletin, Dec 12, 2019.

Editorials

Milloy, John. "Religion can Help Bring Us Together." Waterloo Region Record, A9. May 03, 2023.

Dissertations or theses

Fong, A. L. (2023). Female gamers’ perceptions of their mental health influenced by the online gaming space (Publication No. 30810740) [Doctoral Dissertation], University of Lethbridge. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Grey literature

Black, V. (2024). AI Job Displacement: Perspectives on the Future of Work From Beneath the Silicon Ceiling. Somatmosphere. https://somatosphere.net/ai-job-displacement-perspectives-on-the-future-of-work-from-beneath-the-silicon-ceiling

Immigration Partnership of Waterloo Region (2021). Waterloo Region Immigrant Survey Summary Report. https://www.immigrationwaterlooregion.ca/en/business-opportunities/resources/Resources--Publications/2021-Immigrant-Survey-Summary-Report.pdf

A library database is an online searchable collection of information, often in the form of references to articles, books, and book chapters (but also newspaper articles, thesis, music, etc). Consider how the author of this thesis utilizes databases and search techniques, as described on pages 23ff.

Dissertation

Davis, D. E. (2019). Strong black women, depression, and the pentecostal church (Order No. 13807317). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

1. Consider word variations and synonyms
   • think about how others might refer to your ideas
   • e.g, child death, perinatal death, neonatal death, stillbirth, sudden infant death, etc.

2. Employ search limiters (available limiters depend on the database)
   • peer reviewed, article type, date
   • e.g, in APA PsycInfo, can include: age group, population group, methodology
3. Identify key publications and authors
   • note citations, and cited references, repeated author names
4. Document and track everything you do in the steps above

Omni is a large index, but it does not contain everything, so it is important to duplicate your searches across other subject databases. There is no such thing as a typical GJRC topic, with much of your research likely to be of an interdisciplinary nature. Here are some examples of databases you could search. Note: if you already know the title of an article, you can search for it in Omni (tutorial: Finding an article when you only know the title)

• Connecting to Library resources in Google Scholar

The Library subscribes to a wide variety of Canadian, US, and international news sources, both current and archival. More information.

Dissertations and theses may be considered scholarly sources since they are closely supervised by a dissertation committee made up of scholars, are directed at an academic audience, are extensively researched, follow research methodology, and are cited in other scholarly work. However, dissertations are still considered student work and are not peer-reviewed. They often contain extensive bibliographies.

Grey literature is information produced outside traditional scholarly publications. It includes reports, policy briefs and reports, major research papers, white papers, working papers, government documents, speeches, etc. 

There is no single database that covers grey literature well, so Google is helpful in cases like this. Consider the following tips when searching Google, often using these in combination:

• limit to domain
  • site:ca, site:edu
• limit to document type
  • filetype:pdf, filetype:pptx
• think how a document might phrase something, enclose that in quotes
  • heterodox "sufi islam" filetype:pdf site:edu

 Below are some links to some possible sources of grey literature.

Available through Laurier Library

Available online

• The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
  • Institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice.
• Canadian Council on Social Development
  • Connecting not-for-profit, philanthropic, government and business organizations.
• Canadian Think Tanks (McGill University)
  • A-Z list of Canadian Think Tanks.
• The Council of Canadians
  • A social action organization.
• Institute for Social Research (York University)
  • Houses the largest university-based survey research centre in Canada.

Zotero is a free citation management tool helps you organize all all references in one place. More information.