Skip to Main Content
Go to the Langara College website. Opens in a new window
Go to the Langara Library website. Opens in a new window

Health, Safety, and Environmental Compliance Guide

Resources to help with your research

Types of Resources

Through the library, you'll find professional and scholarly resources. The types of resources that you can find via the library include:

When doing any kind of research, you'll want to find a mix of these resources to have a well-rounded and thorough view of your topic.

Using the Library to Find Resources

The Quick Topic Search is the main search box on the library homepage. It searches many library resources at once and will pull up books, ebooks, DVDs, streaming video, journal articles, periodicals (magazines), and more.

Quick Topic Search

Advanced Search

Here's an image of what your search results may look like when using the Quick Topic search. Click on the purple buttons for explanations.

The Quick Topic Search does not cover all of Langara's resources. For example, many encyclopedia entries do not appear in the search results.

Additionally, it is highly multidisciplinary, so it may also return a number of irrelevant results. Sometimes, it may be necessary for you to search individual resources to find the most relevant research.

Specialized Encyclopedias

The library subscribes to specialized encyclopedias that are great for providing current and reliable background information on specific topics.

Humanities & Social Sciences

Creative Arts

Health Sciences

Sciences

The Library Catalogue

You can search the library catalogue for print and online books and media (DVDs, streaming video and audio).

Books and Media Search

Journal Article Databases

Suggested databases for your research include JSTOR, and Academic Search Complete.

The below video demonstrates how to search journal article databases.

If You're Stuck

Not finding anything?

If you're researching a lesser known or emerging topic, you may have trouble finding enough results. Try:

  • Searching broader resources like the Quick Topic Search or Google
  • Use broader terms.
  • Use alternate search terms. Do OR searches between related words. Use the * symbol at the root of a word to search for all variations of a word
  • Use fewer keywords

Finding too much?

If you're researching a well known topic, you may have too many results. Try:

  • Searching more specific resources like one of our journal databases
  • Adding keywords
  • Using more specific keywords

Is This Resource Appropriate?

If you need help determining whether a resource is appropriate for your research, think about the Five W's:

  • Who wrote this? Do they have any credentials or expertise?
  • What type of resource is this? Book, journal article, blog?
  • When was it written? Is it current? Is there a date attached at all?
  • Where is the author's information coming from? Are there citations?
  • Why was it written? Is the author trying to inform, teach, sell, persuade, or entertain?

You can learn more about the Five W's in the video series Evaluating Your Sources.

Google and Wikipedia

It might not feel like it at first, but library resources are easier to use for academic research than Google and Wikipedia. This video explains more:

Should I be using Google or the Library resources for a paper?

Wikipedia

Don't reference Wikipedia directly in your assignments. If you find information in Wikipedia that you would like to use, try one of two things instead:

1) Search for the same information in a specialized academic encyclopedia, such as Grove Art Online

2) Look at the footnotes. It's good practice to always follow links to reference a resource directly.