Library Tutorials: Video Tutorials

Library Search on the SMU Libraries homepage is a great starting point to find articles of all types.

Subject-specific databases offer more advanced filtering and searching options to find articles.

Subject term searching is a useful strategy to find more focused articles in subject databases.

Also known as "citation searching," this strategy can be useful in advanced literature searches.

A quick overview of how to search for books in the SMU Libraries.

If basic keyword or title searching for books isn't enough, try some advanced strategies.

SMU doesn't have 100% of all books in the world, but we can request a loan from another library for most items that we don't have.

Find a specific magazine, newspaper, or journal title at SMU

When you're viewing a large list of articles, how do you know which ones are worth reading more closely?

Empirical, peer-reviewed journal articles can be challenging to read.

Scholarly argument articles can be challenging to read.

Scholarly books have certain structures and tools that can be used to help you read and understand them.

Learn about the purposes and structure of literature reviews.

More detail on how to complete a literature review.

Use filters and options to select the best database(s) for your research needs.

Introduction to the basic features of the ATLA database for religion and theology.

Book reviews help position a scholar's work within the context of the larger field as well as aids in pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of a scholar's work. ATLA lets you quickly identify book reviews.

Look up a specific verse, chapter, or book in ATLA to find scholarly work analyzing it.

Introduction to the Accordance application and the many tools it provides for biblical research.

Instructions on how to conduct Key Number Searches and Word Studies in Accordance.

An explanation of the various research tools that can be found in the library for Accordance.

Ways to organize your library.

Blue Letter Bible is a freely-available online concordance.