Arts & Creative Industries Subject Guide

There are several search tools that can help you find articles on your topic.  You might need to experiment a bit to see which works best for your subject area.

We'd recommend starting with our library catalogue search. It works very well for many subjects.

LibrarySearch

Just try typing some words into the search box and click the search button.  You  will probably find books, DVDs, e-books, websites etc. as well as journal articles.  

• To limit your search to journal articles, use the Format option from the filter options at the right of the screen.  Expand the menu to see all the options (you may need to click Show More).  You can then select Articles from the menu to restrict your search to journal articles, or you can choose newspaper articles if that is what you ant.

You will probably find far too many, so the next step is to add some more keywords or use some more of the filter options to refine your search:

• for example, you can restrict your search to peer-reviewed Journals, you can select particular subjects within the results, or you can restrict results by date of publication.  

If you don't find enough things, there is an option at the top to Include results not available in full-text

• This means you would also see things we may not have immediate access to, but which you might be able to find in other local libraries, or request on inter-library loan.

If you don't find what you want quickly, have a look at our help pages which give more detailed suggestions on how to search.  

For some subjects it may be better to identify specialist databases and search them directly, see below.

You may need to click on the View It links in the results to link through to full text. Read the instructions carefully to see if you need any passwords.

Sometimes you get a better search by going directly to a database and using the search interface that has been designed for it. 

Some kinds of databases actually can't be searched via LibrarySearch, e.g. sound recordings, video clips etc.

To see what we have look in the Arts & Creative Industries Databases list, 

For advice on searching, see Database Search Tips

Google Scholar

While we think you will get the best results by using LibrarySearch, of course there's nothing wrong with using Google Scholar if you like it.  However, if you are working off-campus, Google Scholar won't link you to Edinburgh Napier subscription services unless you set your preferences up first.  You may miss lots of available full text if you don't.

See our LibGuide on making Google Scholar work better for you.

Once you are in BrowZine, change your Subject to Arts & Humanities and see what you find!