Seek and Find: Beyond the Classroom

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

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.

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.

Primary sources

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

Videos

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

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

Open access journals

• Open Access is free online availability and usage right of research articles
• Open Access publishing typically involves the author paying an article processing charge (APC)
• APC's can be built into grant applications
• See the Library's Scholarly Communication page for more information

Predatory journals

Predatory journals are a global threat. They accept articles for publication — along with authors’ fees — without performing promised quality checks for issues such as plagiarism or ethical approval. (Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., & Ardern, C. (2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature, 576(7786), 210+)

• Rising number of ‘predatory’ academic journals undermines research and public trust in scholarship (The Conversation, Sept. 19, 2023) For more, Google News search for "predatory journals"
• Scottish Journal of Arts, Social Sciences and Scientific Studies (example)
• Call for papers (example)
• Beall's list

How do I know if a journal is reputable?

• Determine if it is indexed in a topically relevant database, such as APA PsycInfo, CINAHL, or RILM
• Locate the title in Ulrichsweb: Global Serials Directory
  • e.g., Ulrichs results for "music therapy"

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 35-38.

Dissertation

Al-Hamad, A. (2021). Syrian refugee women's experiences with the ontario health care system: A critical ethnography study (Order No. 30510215). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2838333990). (see pp. 35-38)

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 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:

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 CAST 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 alreadyknow 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

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.

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

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.