Course resource help for Pathways programmes

• If you're new to the Oxford Brookes Library, check our quick guides for new starters
• Check How to get help using the Library
• Find out about Library services for users with a disability and Alternate formats

Discover the Library: a Guide for International Students (Google slides)

• Take a virtual tour of Headington Library
• Check a PDF floor plan of the Headington Library
• The main section for English language learning resources is on Level 2 in Zone E of the Headington Library.  
• The main section for Business resources is on Level 3.
• Use LibrarySearch to look for specific books and topics.

Your module reading lists will tell you what sources you need to read before class and also provide further readings that may be helpful for assignments. You can view any reading list, whether you're studying that module or not.

If you're studying the module

• Most reading lists are available online via the relevant Moodle course - often in the 'Key resources' section or arranged by weekly topic. 

To browse reading lists for your course

• Explore all reading lists for Pathways Foundation modules
• Explore all reading lists for Pathways Pre-Master's Modules
• Explore all reading lists for Pre-sessional English

To look through the whole collection of reading lists

To search the full collection, go to the Library and choose the Reading lists tab above the LibrarySearch box. Type in the module code or name.

More about finding and understanding your module reading lists (Google slides)

Going to university is a huge step but there is lots of support available. Here are links to support services and useful resources to help you take care of yourself:

• Managing yourself and your time (part of our Study Smarter series)
• Wellbeing resources 
• How to contact your Student Support Coordinators (OBSS)
• Inclusive Support Service

LibrarySearch is our main search system - you can use it to search for print and eBooks and for journal articles.

How do I search for books?

• Use LibrarySearch to look for books and eBooks available in the Oxford Brookes Library. Just type in the author, title or subject that you are interested in. Limit your search results to books.
• Check the video guide (right) for tips on how LibrarySearch works

How do I find print books in the Library?

Print books have a call number which tells you where the book is shelved in the Library.

For example. this book: Academic writing : a handbook for international students by Stephen Bailey. is shelved at 808.042 BAI.

The system for arranging stock in Brookes Library is called the Dewey Decimal Classification system (DDC). Every book has a number to denote its subject and letters to help you find a specific book. 

Guides to help you with understanding call numbers and finding books on the library shelves:

• Finding your material - part of our quick guides for new starters  
•  A guide to finding books and eBooks in Brookes Library (Word doc)
• A guide to finding books and eBooks in Brookes Library (PDF)

How do I borrow books?

• Borrowing and returning tells you about borrowing print books (part of our quick guides For new starters)
• If the book is on loan to another user or at one of our other libraries, you can put a hold on it (YouTube video). If it's on the shelves, it's quicker for you to go and get it yourself.

Use LibrarySearch to look for books and eBooks available in the Oxford Brookes Library. Type in the author, title or subject that you are interested in. If you want to just see eBooks, you can limit your results by using the filters on the left. 

Here is an example of a library eBook: Success As an Online Student: Strategies for Effective Learning . Follow the 'View eBook' link to connect to it. Log in when prompted with your Brookes student number and password. 

Our eBooks are on various web platforms, for example this one is on  ProQuest Ebook Central. You'll see there are options to:

• Read the book online
• Download individual chapters as PDFs (NB you will be restricted as to how many pages you could save from the whole book).
• Download the whole book for a limited time (usually between 1 and 21 days).

In order to download many of our eBooks - including ones on ProQuest - you need to have the Adobe Digital Editions programme or app on your computer/device. You can download Adobe Digital Editions for free.

O'Reilly eBooks

O'Reilly is another eBook platform but it works differently to most other e-resources. If you need to access an O'Reilly eBook, check this quick guide to how to login; steps 4-6 show you what to do when you reach the O'Reilly site.

Academic journals are key sources for your university studies and your tutors will encourage them to use them as sources in your assignments.

• Articles published in these journals are written by specialists in the subject and they provide an insight into current thinking, debate and research in the field. 
• Journals can be good sources of up to date information on current topics which may not be covered by books. 
• Articles can cover a specific topic in depth, e.g. a case study. 

This guide Anatomy of a Journal (PDF) from the Open University explains clearly what a journal is, and how they differ from books.

Peer reviewed journal articles

You will often be asked to consult peer reviewed articles for your research. These are high quality scholarly articles that have been checked by other experts in the field. 

The peer review provides feedback so that researchers can revise and improve their papers before publication. It also acts as a quality check, ensuring that articles meet high standards expected in the discipline and required to maintain the reputation of the journal. Find out more about the purpose of peer review and how it works in this Explainer: what is peer review?

LibrarySearch is a good place to start looking for journal articles on a topic. Just type your keywords or a phrase in the search box. At the results screen, use the the filter options on the left to limit your search to peer-reviewed articles.

We recommend you also use databases, especially for more in-depth research because LibrarySearch doesn’t cover all of our e-resources and you may get better results on a more specialised database.

If you have the details of a specific article (for example from an author's bibliography) you may be able to find it through LibrarySearch by typing in some key words from the article title and an author. If the article doesn't come up, you'll need to look up the journal instead to see if we have it  - see the section 'Look for a specific journal' below.

Here is an example of an article from an academic journal which follows a very common structure:

Thurnell-Read, T., Brown, L. and Long, P. (2018) 'International Students’ Perceptions and Experiences of British Drinking Cultures’, Sociological Research Online, 23(3), pp.572-588. 

Always start with the abstract: a summary of the article’s content that appears at the beginning. Look at this to help you decide if an article is relevant for your own research. 

Journal articles often have this structure: Introduction - The research study - Discussion/conclusions. 

1. Introductory section: the author will usually set their article in the context of previous research. Notice all the in-text citations, e.g. (Gill, 2002). These are sources that the authors read before conducting their own research. 
2. The research study: this will form the main part of the article
3. Discussion/Conclusions: Where the author highlights what they found out. 

When you're searching for sources, you don't have to read the article in full at this stage. Scan through the abstract, introduction and conclusion to see if it's relevant to your own research topic. If the article looks useful, download the PDF and read it later, making notes as you go. Don’t forget to record all the details of the article for your reference list.

Looking for a specific journal

• Go to the Library and select the 'Journal titles' tab.
• Type in the journal title.
• Find the journal on LibrarySearch and click on the title.
• Click on the 'Access journal' link to connect to the journal home page.
• The journal site may offer a search function and will also allow you to browse. If browsing, use the year, volume and issue numbers to find the correct journal issue. Articles in each issue will be listed in page order, so use the page numbers to find the specific article.

Looking for a specific article

You may want to do this if you're following up a reference found in a bibliography:

• Try looking up the article on LibrarySearch. Use the author's surname and a few keywords from the article title.
• If you can't locate the article in this way, follow the steps above to look up the journal title and check if we have access to the journal and issue you need.

It's a good idea to keep track of your sources as you find them, so that it's easier to reference them later. Check this guide for How to save and cite sources in LibrarySearch (Google slides)

Always check Cite Them Right to see how your references should look in the Harvard style required at Brookes.

• Library eBooks - Cite Them Right says to reference these in the same way as print books 
• Journal articles - make sure you have a record of: Author(s); Title of article; Title of journal; Year of publication; Volume number (if given); Issue number (if given); Page numbers. You may also want to note the DOI.

Dictionaries and language resources

OED - online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

English language learning resources are shelved on Level 2 of the Headington Library, in Zone E (silent study area). Here are some key sections:

• 420 English language
• 423 English dictionaries
• 423.1 Thesauri and dictionaries of English synonyms
• 425 English grammar
• 428 English language usage
• 428.24 Learning English as a foreign language, including IELTS

Use LibrarySearch to look for dictionaries and other language resources available via the library.

Reference books

• Oxford Reference Online - collection of Oxford University Press reference books on a variety of subjects. Good sources for finding concise factual information and definitions. Individual titles from the collection are also listed on LibrarySearch.

Graded readers are simplified versions of English books - usually novels or short stories. 

You can find the library's collection of graded readers on Level 2 of the Headington Library, in Zone E (silent study area). Books are shelved at the call number 428.64. 

You can browse through a selection of titles in this list English reading resources: Graded Readers

Managing yourself and your time - list of books, web resources and other support.

Reading, lectures and note taking - list of books, web resources and other support:

• Resources on reading skills
• Lectures, seminars and note-taking

Writing essays, reports and other assignments -  list of books, web resources and other support:

• Writing essays
• Writing reports
• Writing for Business - including how to write business plans
• Critical reading, critical thinking & constructing arguments
• Using sources in your written work

 Lists of books, web resources and other support:

• Group work and presentations 
• Poster presentations
• Preparing for exams

Lists of books, web resources and other support:

• Dissertations and independent research
• Social research methods

• Digital capabilities for students
• Get more from Google
• Use AI tools for research

Check Cite Them Right for guidance on how to reference market research reports in the Harvard style used at Oxford Brookes.

You can include images of charts and graphs from Mintel reports within your assignments if they help to illustrate the point you are making. You must always acknowledge the source where you obtained the image, in this case the Mintel report. 

In the text of your essay or on a presentation slide, add a caption below the image (use the heading from the Mintel report). Note that illustrations in Mintel reports don’t have numbers, so this will help your reader. For example:

Sugar prices skyrocket

Put an in-text citation and identify what type of illustration it is, e.g. chart, graph.- this should include information that will help to identify the illustration. For example:

(Mintel, 2024, graph)

Put the full reference to the report in your bibliography / reference list, following the Cite Them Right guidance above. For example:

Mintel (2024) Attitudes towards Sugar & Sweeteners – UK – 2024. Available at: https://clients-mintel-com/ (Accessed: 18 October 2024).

More about about finding and using images in your assignments.

If you want to explore beyond Mintel, these additional databases listed on the page Course resource help for Business are recommended:

• Statista contains statistics, infographics, market surveys, consumer surveys, industry and country reports.
• Passport (Euromonitor) contains information about International markets, consumer lifestyles, country, and economic reports from Euromonitor International.
• Marketline has industry reports including market segmentation and Five Forces analysis, as well as case studies, theme reports, company information and more.

See the Business Librarians' page How to use country information and statistics databases.