Find Scholarly Books

Books can be scholarly too, but you need to ask and assess: Is this scholarly?

Find print & ebooks:

Go right to eBooks (which is a good bet for scholarly books):

Questions to Ask to Assess if a Book is Scholarly

Books can be scholarly too! How can you tell? 

A scholarly book will: 

• Be written by an expert or experts in the field (PH.D., M.D., etc preferred)
• Usually present new research or analysis of previous research
• Often be printed by a University Press
• Written for an academic audience and purpose, rather than a popular audience
• Include extensive references to other scholarly work

While you can limit a search for articles to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, you cannot do the same with books. 

You can, however,

• Use the library’s online catalog to look for scholarly books: 
• Read the record for the author and publisher. Are their credentials academic?
• Many of our scholarly books are eBooks. That gives you a chance to check for:
  • Author's credentials (and are there multiple authors even?)
  • Publisher's credentials
  • Academic language and subject matter
  • In-depth analysis
  • In-text citations
  • Thorough and exhaustive references 

• Most of the world’s library catalogs are available at www.worldcat.org
• Use WorldCat to search for scholarly books we don't have at Holman Library. Use InterLibrary Loan to borrow scholarly books and articles from other libraries. You can also look online at what's available at local universities like PLU, UPS, UW, UW Tacoma, etc.

Identifying a Scholarly Book

How can you tell if a books is scholarly?

Below are some important indicators to help.

As shown in the image below, you can see that...

• Scholarly books have academic language and often, a complex title.
• They will often have multiple, academic authors
• And the publisher will be an academic one, often a University Press

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• Here you see the author's academic credentials are established at the front of the book. You will see information showing their experience and works, such as the long list of articles show here, written by the primary author. 

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• While not overly reliant on academic jargon, the scholarly intent of the book is apparent in the table of contents.

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• Scholarship is an ongoing conversation in which academics build on and respond to the ideas of others. Their extensive use of in-text citations indicates where this author references and builds on the work of other researchers and scholars.

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• You will also see that the book clearly cites it sources throughout the book, but also in the book's bibliography. Here, you can see that this bibliography is 20 pages long. This indicates that the author has clearly used and built on the ideas of others in the field, other scholarship.

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Searching by Subject Terms

Use Subject Terms instead of keywords to find the most relevant articles on a topic.

If you can't figure out what keyword will find you articles on your topic, select Subject Terms (in Academic Search Complete) or the Thesaurus (in ProQuest and browse for the Subject Term used by the database. 

• Example: Instead of the common expression "blended families," Academic Search Complete uses the Subject Term: STEPFAMILIES.

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The Subject Terms list can also help you identify key subtopics, as in the example below. 

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Create a Concept Map

A literature review requires you to identify the key issues, questions, and theoretical approaches the scholarly literature focuses on with regard to your topic.

The handout linked below may help you start to map out key facets of the scholarly conversation.
I use it in two ways as shown in the image below

• First, to map out the issues I see from a results list. This helps me choose a scholarly focus.
• Second, to map out the more focused conversation specifically on my topic.

(click on image to enlarge)

Be a Power Researcher

Full Text

ProQuest, Academic Search Complete, and other research databases include article abstracts and citation information without full text. This is useful to you as a researcher!

You may check the filter for Full Text only results (usually at the top or to the side of the results), but if you leave it unchecked, you will learn about highly relevant articles that you can track down elsewhere, whether in another GRC database or in WorldCat.

You can borrow articles we do not have in full text for free through Interlibrary Loan.

The image below shows results from a sample search.

• The first featured result shows the access to the full-text, PDF of the article. 

• The second featured result shows the option to "check for full-text at GRC" - which will either take you to the article housed in another database, or it will connect you to the record where you can then request an interlibrary loan. 

(Click on image to enlarge)

Again, the second option shown in the image above allows you to "check for full-text at GRC" and will either connect you to the full-text PDF of the article in another database, or it will take you to a page that looks like the image below, a record in Primo OneSearch. 

• This is the page you will see if the library doesn't have the PDF. Click on the InterLibrary Loan link to borrow the article from another library. Articles are generally available electronically and they will be emailed to you quickly.

(click on image to enlarge)

Citation "Mining"

Effective researchers "mine" or look through the references of a relevant book or article to find additional sources for their own research. This can be a productive technique!

To track down sources from a references list:  

• Type the title of the source into search box of the library's One Search Tool.
• Put the title in "quotes" to keep all the words together. If the title is very long, you might do best with just the first part.
• If we have it, you'll find it easily this way. If we don't have it, you can use InterLibrary to borrow it for free.

Search Tip Basics

Boolean Operators AND OR NOT

AND / OR / NOT help you broaden or narrow your search results:

• AND narrows and focuses your search - you get fewer, more relevant results

  • Ex: "medical care" AND teen* finds information on medical care specific to teens

• OR broadens your search - you get more results

  • Ex: (teens OR youth) searches for both words

• NOT omits results 

  • Ex: NOT "book reviews"

Truncation *

Use an asterisk with the root of a search term to find multiple forms of the word.

• Teen* = teen, teenaged, teenagers

Build your Search

 Add one search term at a time, so you understand what works and what doesn't.

Keep searches simple using keywords to capture core ideas.

• Ex: Search on ethics AND medical care AND immigrants, rather than: Do immigrant communities receive an adequate standard of health care?

Use a variety of search words to find different results

Look for and try relevant Subject Terms you find in the databases

Using the Interlibrary Loan Service

InterLibrary Loan: No library has it all! But the InterLibrary Loan (or ILL) is a service offered by Holman Library for borrowing books and articles from other libraries. InterLibrary Loan requests are free to current GRC students, faculty and staff.

For your research, it is important to search many places.

• First, start with the books and articles available through the Holman Library.

• Then, If you find books and articles that the Library does NOT have access to, just request them through Interlibrary Loan.

• Using Interlibrary Loan increases the amount of resources available to you and helps you become a more thorough researcher.

Note:

• Books and other items that require mailing may take 1-2 weeks.

• Articles and other digital items may arrive within 2-5 days. Use your email as your contact info and the article will be sent directly to you.

If you need help filling out this form, call the library reference desk at (253) 931-6480.

Other places you can search...

Use the links below to look for books, articles and more beyond our collection: