Finding Credible Sources: Search Skills for Students (LibrarySkills)

Audience: PG taught, UG

Date: Tuesday 29 September 2026

Times: 12.05 to 12.55

Key details: This class will take place in the Teaching Room on Level 1 of the Main Library, North Street.

Target audience

Undergraduates

Qualifications needed

N/A

Course pre-work

N/A

Course information

If your literature searches are turning up too much (or too little) of the wrong thing, this session is for you. Get to grips with what counts as a credible academic source, learn advanced search techniques and Boolean commands to sharpen your results, and find out how to locate the best databases for your subject area.

The class will take place in the Teaching Room on Level 1 of the Main Library, North Street

Aims and objectives

  • Understand what key academic sources are, including the differences between journal articles, books, websites and other grey literature sources
  • Appreciate the differences between a basic and advanced search and how this impacts the search results retrieved
  • Be able to use advanced search functionality in Library Search
  • Understand basic Boolean search commands
  • Know how to locate other databases which may be relevant to the discipline of study, using Subject Guides and A-Z of eResources

Tutors

Kayleigh McGarry

Sharon Nangle

Venue

Library Teaching Room


Course provider

Library
Email: library@st-andrews.ac.uk