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 student website 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 LibrarySearch and Google Scholar for your assignment topics.

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 Edward Duncan’s Foundations for practice in occupational therapy and Anita Awal’s Occupational therapy and older people.

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 the 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:

Jacobs, K. (2012) ‘PromOTing occupational therapy: words, images, and actions’, American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66 (6), pp.652-671.

The above example shows that the article ‘PromOTing occupational therapy: words, images, and actions’ was published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy . This is one of the journal titles that will be useful for you, others available via LibrarySearch include:

• Australian Journal of Occupational Therapy
• British Journal of Occupational Therapy
• Journal of Occupational Science

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.

CINAHL Complete – CINAHL stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature. The database contains references from more than 2,900 nursing and allied health journals. CINAHL with Full Text provides full text for more than 600 journals.

PsycINFO – This database provides references from over 2,000 psychological, social, behavioural, and health journals. It is very useful for a mental health related topics.

Social Policy and Practice – This database represents an important source of evidence-based social science research. Coverage includes topics such as public health, homelessness and older people. The database comprises over 320,000 bibliographic records such as surveys and statistics.

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 - Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.

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.

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.

OTseeker – this database contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. The trials have been critically appraised and rated to help you to evaluate their validity and interpretability. NB. Not updated since 2016

College of Occupational Therapists – Evidence Spotlights – this resource for COT points you towards evidence, policy and COT resources for key topics such as Adult Social Care; Dementia and End of Life. *Members only access to documents.*

Don’t forget that if you are a member of the British Association and College of Occupational Therapists (BAOT/COT) you can access a number of online resources via their Library service.

World Federation of Occupational Therapists some freely available resources.

For more detailed advice see the LibrarySearch help pages and our finding information modules on the Learning Skills Hub for tips on searching for books; journals; journal articles; media resources and websites.