Library Search lets you search all library resources, including books, e-books, journals, journal articles and more, in one quick and easy search. You can access Library Search from links on the portal or from the Library and Learning Resources web page. Many of the resources available via Library Search are not freely available on the web so if you search for information using only Google you will miss lots of quality resources. Make sure you search Library Search and Google Scholar for your assignment topics.

Use Library Search to find printed books and e-books. Try browsing the core midwifery book collection by looking at the shelves for classmark 618 onwards. In Augustine House, this is on the top floor. In the Drill Hall Library, this is in the Silent Study Zone.

If you can’t get to the library, you can access the university’s e-resources online. The library has hundreds of relevant e-books which you can access by logging into your account on Library Search. Simply limit your results in the left-hand pane of the search screen to e-books and click on the link to CCCU e-book to download or read online. You’ll find we have some amazing titles such as Mayes’ Midwifery via the ClinicalKey Student Midwifery resource (see further info under Further searching…).

In addition to our academic textbooks, you may wish to explore the Experts by Experience (EbE) and the Professional Reflection collection of e-books and e-audiobooks. The Experts by Experience collection includes texts written by patients/clients/carers which shed light on their illness/condition/situation from their own perspective. The Professional Reflection collection includes texts by healthcare professions which reflect on life in the sector. Visit the Learning Skills Hub module on EbE to explore the collection further and see how to access the texts on the Libby app.

Journals provide an important source of information in addition to books as they publish articles on specific topics and often present and discuss results of research or case-studies. Depending on availability, you can access printed journals in the library (in Augustine House they are located on second floor in the silent zone) and electronic versions via LibrarySearch.

You may see journal articles on your reading list – below is an example of a reference to a journal article:

Venter, C. and Dean, T. (2008) ‘Caring for the newborn: infant nutrition part 1’, British Journal of Midwifery , 16 (11), pp.726-733.

The above example shows that the article ‘Caring for the newborn: infant nutrition part 1’ was published in the British Journal of Midwifery . This is one of the journal titles that will be useful for you, others available via LibrarySearch include:

• Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health
• MIDIRS Midwifery Digest
• Practising Midwife

To make sure you are a carrying out a thorough search for your topic you should also try any/all of the following key, specialised databases. To access them use the Find Databases link on the LibrarySearch home page, find them in the A-Z list and click on the link.

British National Formulary (BNF) is a pharmaceutical reference book that contains information and advice on prescribing and pharmacology, along with specific facts and details about many medicines. Information within the BNF includes indication(s), contraindications, side effects, doses, legal classification, names and prices of available proprietary and generic formulations.

British National Formulary for Children (BNFC) is the standard UK paediatric reference for prescribing and pharmacology. It contains a wide range of information and advice on prescribing for children – from newborn to adolescence. The entries are classified by group of drug, giving cautions for use, side effects, licensed use, indications and dose of most of the drugs available for children in the UK National Health Service.

CINAHL – CINAHL stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature. The database contains references from more than 2,900 nursing and allied health journals and provides full text for more than 600 journals. Don’t be put off by the title of this resource it is useful for midwifery topics and is good for wider health topics such as infection control and communication.

ClinicalKey Student Midwifery – a small but core collection of ebooks including Mayes’ Midwifery and Coad’s A&P for midwives. From the browse list, you can read the books online. To be able to search inside the book and make notes, you need to add the book to the ClinicalKey bookshelf.

MAH Complete (formerly InterMid) – Includes: Internurse, Intermid and Health Professionals. MAH Complete includes full current issue and back file coverage of the British Journal of Nursing and British Journal of Midwifery. Access starts from 1992.

Maternity and Infant Care – Maternity and Infant Care is the definitive database from MIDIRS (Midwives Information and Resource Service). It is an important database for those involved in the care of women and infants. The database contains over 120,000 references with abstracts to journal articles from over 550 international English language journals, books, and grey literature relating to the midwifery profession, pregnancy, labour, birth, postnatal care, neonatal care and the infant’s first year of life.

SCOPUS - Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources. With over 22,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, Scopus offers researchers a quick, easy and comprehensive resource to support their research needs in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

TRIP Database – a search tool designed to give quick access to high quality clinical information. A simple search for ‘midwifery’ will find a range of items from patient information to primary journal literature.

Also available in LibrarySearch is Lexis+ Newspapers UK and the Oxford English Dictionary. View the help guides for key LibrarySearch databases.

Please note you will be able to access the full text of many of the articles you find when searching the databases but will not be able to read the full text of all the results you find.

You could also try databases that are freely available on the web:

Gov.uk – use this site to find publications, consultation, policy, guidance and statistics from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Royal College of Midwives Doctoral Thesis Collection - a source of open access midwifery information showcasing completed PhD work.

Don’t forget that if you are a member of the RCM – Royal College of Midwifery you can access a number of online resources via their Library and Information Service.