FYSE 1534: Who Owns Culture?

LibrarySearch is great for the exploratory phase of your research, when you are just learning about your topic and seeing what types of resources are available. This is because LibrarySearch provides access to everything the library owns, so you can be pretty confident that you will see results with just about any search.

1. Start with 1-3 keywords
2. Check the Available at Middlebury filter. You can also check the "Scholarly (peer review)" button to only see articles that have been published with the approval of a peer review board.
3. Then limit by source type: journal articles

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Anytime you find an article that the library doesn't provide access to, submit an ILL request and our team will email it to you.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Anytime you find an article that the library doesn't provide access to, submit an ILL request and our team will email it to you.

A scholarly article is written by an expert for the purpose of sharing new research and findings. You can identify a scholarly article by several means one of the easiest is whether or not the article was peer reviewed. Peer review is a process in which a board of experts review an article before it is published in a given journal. Most reputable journals use some form of peer review to add credibility to their publication.

Good signs that a work is "scholarly"

• Did you find the article in a library database or Google Scholar?
• Was the article peer reviewed?
• Is the author associated with a university or prominent research institute?
• Is there a worked cited list or bibliography?
• The content may be persuasive, but remains objective

These are not the only way to determine if a source is scholarly, but should help you decide.

Yes you can, but library platforms will provide the greatest access to scholarly resources. We encourage you to learn these systems, when you become fluent with them finding relevant information will become much easier.

Best way to check if we have a resource:

Open LibrarySearch and create a Title search with quotations around the title. The quotes make sure you are searching for that exact title and not each word in the title as a keyword.

Easy way to check, but not as reliable:

If you prefer to use Google or Google Scholar, try adding the "Reload via Midd Lib" button to your favorites bar. When you find an article you want to read from a non-library webpage, click on it to see if we have access.

To install Reload via Midd Lib:

1. Drag this link up to the bookmarks toolbar in your browser (or save it to your favorites toolbar):
2. You will now see a new button in your toolbar: "Reload via Midd Lib."
3. Now, if an online resource asks you to log in, click the Midd Lib button to reload the page and log in with your Middlebury username and password.
4. If the Library has a subscription to the resource through the website that you're using, you will be able to view it.

Reminder: This tool will only help if the Middlebury Library has a subscription to the resource from the provider of the outside link. Often we do have access to the article you're looking for, but from a different provider.