Library Subject Guides
YorSearch: Use YorSearch, the Library catalogue, to find books. Some books will be available as e-books that you can access online from anywhere; look for the View Online link in YorSearch.
Reading lists: Most of your reading lists are made available on the Yorkshare VLE, which links directly to library catalogue records for items in the Library's collections, plus e-books, e-journal articles and other online resources.
The Library subscribes to individual ebook titles as well as ebook collections. You can search for individual ebook titles on YorSearch , which gives you direct links to the full text. For some titles you will see we also have the print version. Ebook collections can be found in the E-resources Guide which lists our e-resources alphabetically by title and by subject. You can access a resource by clicking on the title; you may then need to login with your York IT Services username and password.
Because ebooks are provided by different publishers you will find that the interface and various features differ between them. The information contained in the guide below should help you when accessing and navigating ebooks, and please do contact the Library if you're having trouble.
Ebooks Guide - this includes information about using ebooks from different providers, such as printing and downloading ebooks, and reserving an ebook where only a limited number of people can access a title at one time.
Please be aware that in cases where publishers restrict the number of simultaneous users for ebooks, the Library monitors ebook turn-aways (this is where the limit of users has been reached) and fast-tracks purchases of extra ebooks from another source when a turn-away happens more than once. In addition, if you think we should purchase an extra copy of an ebook, please let the Academic Liaison Librarian for CMS know.
If you know the name of the journal you need, you can search for it in YorSearch. Most journals can be accessed online by logging in with your University username and password; look for the View Online link. Some will only be available in print in the Library; click on Find in Library to check what print copies are available and where they are shelved.
You can use Google Scholar to search for academic materials like journal articles, peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. When you use a campus-networked PC, Google Scholar will automatically link to the University of York library catalogue and display articles where we have full-text access. When off campus, you will need to select University of York Library in the Settings option (under Library Links).
In addition to the resources listed below, this blog from the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities contains a useful list of free online resources for Medievalists.
Palaeography resources:
Helpful language resources:
York Digital Library (YODL) provides access to over 69,000 resources, which include images, archive material and rare books. Some of the material is public, some of the collections can be accessed by members of the University only and some collections are restricted to students taking certain courses. Remember to login so that you can see the full range of resources available to you.
You can access past exam papers and MA theses which have been selected by the Centre for Medieval Studies in our Digital Collections, which you can find linked to in the top pane in YorSearch.
Use the following links to search Library collections outside the University of York. Remember that you can use the Library's Interlending service to get items that we don't have in stock at York, or you can catch our free minibus to the British Library Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa. You can visit and sometimes borrow from other libraries using the SCONUL Access scheme.
