Library Guides: Art, Design and Architecture: Research Project

Dissertation Support

Dissertation and research projects are a much longer and in-depth form of assignment than your previous assignments. You will complete your own research, use many more resources, focusing in a specific area of study and possibly writing in a way that you are not so familiar with.

If we do not have access to the item you need for your research project/dissertation:

1. Does the information only appear in this item or might another item include the information?

2. Check the abstract carefully to make sure it is something you will need for your work.

3. Check for Open Access versions online- use Google or search Primo or an Open Access aggregator such as Core to check for legally free access to the item.

4. Request the item as an Inter Library Loan if there is no free version. If the item is a book, email your Information Specialist first to see if we might purchase a copy.

5. If we cannot supply via Inter Library Loan, you might need to use secondary referencing if the item is mentioned elsewhere. Check Cite Them Right to learn how to do this.

The links below will tell you more about Open Access, and about accessing Inter Library Loans and Theses for your research.

Don't forget that you can also contact Shelagh Nott or Samantha Brown to discuss searching and finding resources.

The Library Skills pages have further information on planning search strategies and writing literature reviews.