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Quick Help
- Ask a Librarian
Questions? Ask us! Chat, call, text, or email anytime.
- Interlibrary Loan
Need a book or article we don't own? Request a copy through Interlibrary Loan borrowing.
- Purchase Recommendations
Is there an item you think the UVA Library should own but doesn't? Make a purchase recommendation.
- Using Databases Off Grounds
Have questions about accessing databases from off-grounds? Find more information here.
General Tutorials and Guides
The How Do I Start My Research? module will help you learn about defining a topic, knowledge gaps, and search strategies. It will take about 10-15 minutes to complete.
Reading academic sources like peer-reviewed journal articles is not like reading a novel or your Twitter feed. This short video on reading academic sources and this guide to reading journal articles will help you learn how to read and understand academic sources without being an expert in the field.
The How is Information Created? interactive module will discuss strategies for integrating sources into your writing. It will take you 10-15 minutes to complete.
The How Do I Use Information Correctly? interactive module will help you learn about information ethics and how and why to properly cite your sources. It will take you 10-15 minutes to complete.
Specific Resources
This Getting Started with Virgo guide will get you searching for books and articles in no time using the UVA Library's search tool. Use the filters on the left side of the screen to fine tune your search and use the tabs at the top to navigate between books, articles, and more. Remember that Virgo only searches a small sample of our hundreds of databases, so you may find more articles by searching a multi-disciplinary or subject-specific database.
One general database to try is Academic Search Complete, a large database of articles from scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers. It is updated frequently and has access to very recent resources. This guide to Academic Search Complete will help orient you to the database and understand how to leverage its features to get the best source possible.
You might also consider the following resources:
ProQuest offers access to 51 separate databases, covering numerous fields from the hard sciences to social sciences, as well as newspapers, government records, and statistical data.
JSTOR has older issues of scholarly journals, from the start to 3-5 years ago.
Project Muse is a searchable database of full text articles from nearly 600 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics, mostly from North American university presses. Older volumes are often available from JSTOR.
Consensus is a search engine that uses artificial intelligence to surface research findings in over 200 million peer-reviewed documents.
Depending on the topic of your research, you might need a subject-specific database. You can explore our entire list of databases to find resources particular to one discipline.