Use Your Library Effectively!
UVic Research Guides (link goes to All Guides)
UVic Research Guides Organized By Subject
Direct Links to a Few Research Guides of Special Interest to Us
- English
- Book Reviews
- History (selections)
- Citation Management at UVic
- Biography and Autobiography
- GeoSpatial Data
- Online Reference Resources
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
- ORCID (Unique Personal Identifier)
Set up Your VPN
VPN is the acronym for “Virtual Private Network.” Install a VPN client on your laptop, log in to UVic, and you’ll have access to all the Library resources from home, a coffee shop, or anywhere else. Follow instructions here: Remote access (VPN).
UVic’s Subscription Databases
You’ll find all of UVic’s subscription databases listed here: https://www.uvic.ca/library/find/databases/index.php. If you don’t have the direct link handy, remember that you can find databases from the Library’s home page by hovering over “Search options” and clicking on “Databases.”
“Database” is a catch-all term for various kinds of digital resources. Click here to learn more about the Questions to Ask of Digital Resources.
There are many other open-access databases that are not listed in UVic’s Databases index because they are not subscription-based. How will you find those? And how will you assess their scholarly reliability?
Basic Searches
The Summon search panel is the default search on the UVic Libraries home page. It’s also the default search tool for finding articles at UVic. As tools go, Summon 2.0 is like a garden rake. Most of the time, however, you need a knife.
If you want to use Summon effectively, watch the video. If you know that you want only peer-reviewed articles, you can check the “peer reviewed only” box even in the basic search view. Learn how to limit your searches using the “Advanced Search” options; if you get good at using Summon, you can get it to function like a pair of tweezers to help you pick the needle out of the haystack.
Janelle Jenstad 