Welcome to Queen's!
As a new student there are 5 things you need to know now:
As an undergraduate student at Queen's you may be expected to find resources such as journal articles, books as well as primary sources to help you with your assignments.
To get started, refer to your module handbook or reading list provided by your tutor. This will provide details of all material you need to read for your assignments. Much of this content may be available to you on Canvas, but in some cases you may be expected to find books, book chapters and journal articles yourself using the Library at Queen's. This guide will get you started.
If you would like a refresher on academic expectations and working with scholarly material at university the best place to start is with our short Transition Skills online course. This will outline what is expected of you at university.
Academic content has been peer-reviewed before publication. This means that other academics in the subject area have reviewed and checked it for quality. So you can trust it is high quality and acceptable to use in your assignments.
There are three main types of academic content you will be expected to find as a university student
Note the publication year. To find this book type the title into the Library catalogue. This book is available as both a print book and an ebook. The ebook may be accessed via a link underneath the title. the print book is on Floor 2 of the McClay Library at Shelfmark PR830.I6 CRON
Note the word "in". This is a particular chapter in an edited collection. It was published as a book. To find it search for the book in the Library Catalogue, then look up the content page to find the chapter.
Note the volume number 18 and Issue number 4 in this example. Journals are published periodically, usually several times a year, so there could be several volumes for the same year. There are two ways to find this:
Everything you need to explore the Library at Queen’s is online.
Browse the Library webpage to find information on services, getting help and studying in the Library.
Check this Subject Guide for tips on using your reading list, finding books and journal articles and links to useful resources
Access
Study
Books
Library Chat: monitored by Queen’s Library staff. A good first port of call if you are lost online. Find Library Chat on the Library homepage.
Library Help FAQs : quick, focused answers to common questions.
This subject guide: content updated by your Subject Librarian. Included links to resources and tips on how to get best use out of the Library.
Your Subject Librarian: make initial contact via email. Email queries, questions or comments or arrange to meet for a one-to-one skills session via MS Teams
The Library aims to stock copies of all books specified on reading lists. To find books, go to the Library website and use Library Catalogue to search for a specific book title, or type in a topic to view all books in the Library about that topic.
The catalogue will show the locations of all print copies of books that you can borrow. It will also include links to any books are available for you read on-line in e-book format.
If a book you need does not appear in our catalogue, please email your Subject Librarian, who will investigate purchasing the book.
Alongside the journal articles available to you via Canvas. you can also find articles by going to the Library website and clicking on the Article Search tab. Type in a topic (or a specific article title), and click Search.
Article Search will look in all the journals subscribed to by the Library, and display a list of articles relevant to your topic. Read, and download, an article by clicking on the link that appears underneath the article details, and following the links through to the relevant publisher's website, logging in with your student number and password if prompted to do so. Most articles will be available for you to print or save in PDF format.
If you want to search within one specific journal, rather than across all the journals subscribed to by the Library, go to the Library website and click on the E-Journals A-Z link. In the E-Journals A-Z, search for the journal you need. If the Library subscribes to the journal, it will appear in the list of results. To access the journal website, click the Full Text Access link that appears underneath the journal details. You can then search the journal website for articles on your topic, or browse the list of all available issues to find a specific article