Skip to Main Content

GEOS1100: Research skills: Library Search, databases and Google

A guide to finding quality information for your GEOS1100 assessment tasks.

Finding Information

Once you have identified your keywords and planned a search strategy you are ready to start your research.

You are expected to use the Library to find resources.  UQ students and researchers get FREE access to quality primary resources through UQ Library.

This section explains how to use library search tools to do your research

Library Search

Library Search is the library's search tool

Use it to find journal articles, books, ebooks, multimedia, conference papers and much more.  Start your Library search on the Library website.  

How to search in Library Search:

  • Login into the Library
  • Select the required information type from the Search drop down menu, ie books, journal articles, etc.
  • Enter your keywords in the search box.  The use of AND between keywords is not necessary as it is implied. Select the Advanced Search option to create more complex searches.
  • Check your spelling - incorrectly spelled keywords will retrieve few or no results
  • Use the content type and subject filters for greater relevance 
  • Select the "peer reviewed articles" filter 
  • Limit by publication date

Watch Using Library Search (YouTube, 2m50s) to see how.

When you have finished watching the video, try a search for yourself in Library Search. Copy and paste the following search into the search box then filter the results for relevant information. Remember to include the quotes!  

"Moreton Bay" pollution

Try the search again without the quotes. What do you notice?

Databases

Databases are electronic collections of scholarly and peer reviewed literature available through the library.

See: Searching in databases

Databases offer deeper searching functionality than Library Search. 

Search databases using your keyword combination searches. The Advanced Search feature in databases allows the development of more complex searches.

Databases are accessible via Library Search. Select "Databases" from the Search dropdown menu and enter "Geographical Sciences" in the search box for a list of relevant databases. Below are two that you could try using the keywords you identified for your topic.

Why can't I just Google?

Why use the Library when you can Google? 

Students are expected to use references based on quality research from authoritative sources which won't be available  through searching in Google. Watch the video to find out more.

UQ Library provides students and researchers with FREE access to high quality information in print and online via Library Search or databases such as Scopus and Web of Science.

Searching in Google and Google Scholar

While the resources of UQ Library should be used for most of your research needs, Google Scholar can be used to find papers and studies that haven't been published commercially or have been published in journals that are not listed in library databases.  More about searching in Google Scholar.

Google is also useful for finding Grey Literature. Grey literature includes reports and documents produced by government  departments, NGOs, industry and organisations which are not published through the regular commercial channels.  Learn how to use Google to find grey literature.