Research Guides: Peabody Library Research Channel: Locate & Retrieve Materials

Search the Library Catalog to find books, articles, and more!

Library Catalog
A tool that lets you search many resources at once. It includes articles as well as books you can find in the library.

To locate books & more at the Vanderbilt Libraries, you will use the library catalog. The videos below demonstrate how to search in the catalog, and how to narrow down your results.

Video - Finding Books in Vanderbilt Libraries Catalog (2:37 mins)

Video - Vanderbilt Library Catalog: What Am I Searching? (2:25 mins)

Video - Managing Your Results in the Vanderbilt Library Catalog (2:52 mins)

Finding Grey Literature

Search Library Databases to locate scholarly research!

You will want to use a library database to track down peer-reviewed articles and other scholarly sources. There are two types of databases:

Subject Database A searchable collection of scholarly journals in a particular field of study. For example, if you are researching psychology, you will use the PsycINFO database to find psychology research.
Multidisciplinary Database A searchable collection of scholarly journals from a large collection of fields, often humanities, social sciences, and more. ProQuest is a good example of a multidisciplinary database.

The databases listed below are frequently used by Peabody students.

Child Care and Early Education Research Connections This link opens in a new window
Research in child care and early education and promotion of that research in policy making.
Education Full Text This link opens in a new window
Articles, periodicals, yearbooks, series, and supplements on special education, educational tests, adult education, multicultural/ethnic education, teaching methods, continuing education, literacy standards, multicultural/ethnic education, etc.
Coverage: 1929 to present. Full text begins 1996. User Limit: 4.
ERIC (ProQuest version) This link opens in a new window
Journal articles, conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books and monographs on education-related literature.
Coverage: 1966 to present.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexing of all areas of linguistics. Applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, history and philosophy of language, syntax and morphology, lexicography, sociolinguistics, nonverbal communication, phonetics, learning disabilities, hearing and speech physiology.
Coverage: 1973 to present.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
APA PsycINFO is a comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature. Journals, articles, books, dissertations, etc. Subjects include: applied psychology, communication systems, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental human and animal psychology, personality, psychological and physical disorders, physiological psychology and neuroscience, professional personnel and issues, psychometrics and statistics, social psychology, social processes and issues, sports psychology and leisure, treatment and prevention.
Coverage: 1800s to present.
Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services and related areas, including social welfare, social policy and community development. Abstracts and index of serials publications, journal articles, dissertations, and citations to book reviews.
Coverage: 1980 to present.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Index of international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and citations to book reviews.
Coverage: 1953 to present.

Video - Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals (3:12 mins)

Need help determining if the article you are looking at is considered 'scholarly'?

View this online tutorial to learn more. It could save you hours of time when you start your research!