Subject & Study Guides: Library Guide for Academic Staff: Finding major resources

Find major resources

What are e-books (electronic books)?

These are books that you can read online via your PC, laptop or mobile device.

Why use them?

e-Books are available 24/7
access them on and off campus
search within the full-text for your topic
avoid waiting for reservations
you don't pay library fines

How many ebooks are available? The AIT Library provides access to approximately 150,000 ebooks.

Click here to access the various electronic book list offerings from the AIT library. Downloading options will vary from publisher to publisher and even from book to book sometimes.

If you need a book, article or thesis that we do not have access to, use the Inter-Library Loans service.

We have just introduced a new library system. KOHA currently does not allow us to provide online request forms for Interlibrary loans. Therefore, we ask that you send all of your inter-library loan applications to the following email account: loans@ait.ie. Please include as much detail as possible when placing your applications to assist library staff in processing all requests as efficiently as possible.

We look forward to making our new inter-library loan service available through Koha in 2018. Any questions or problems making a request? Email: rdunne@ait.ie

Copies of past exam papers are available online to registered staff and students of the Athlone Institute of Technology.

Online past exam papers are based on the set of papers which the Library receives from schools. They are available in pdf format for revision purposes only. We do not receive copies of past repeat examination papers, nor do we receive sample answers.

Past Exam Papers are available on and off-campus. Follow the link to the exam paper you require; you will be prompted for your AIT login and password.

Ted Talks are an excellent resource offering a broad selection of topics on current and future cutting-edge issues.

Brene Brown's TED talk on the power of vulnerability.

Seth Godin's TED talk on the tribes we lead.

Seth Godin's TED talk on standing out.

Daniel Kraft's TED talk on medicine's future, developing apps.

David Logan's TED talk on tribal leadership.

Sheryl Sandberg's TED talk on why we have too few women leaders.

Simon Sinek's TED talk deals with leaders inspiring action in their employees.

Julian Treasure's TED talk on 5 ways to listen better

Fields Wicker-Miurin's TED talk is entitled, Learning from leadership's "missing manual".

Benjamin Zander is a local musician/conductor and his enthusiasm is infectious in this TED talk. May we all be as passionate about our work.

Films used with Teaching
FutureLearn
OpenCourseWare Consortium MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
Open Learn from Open University in UK
more...less...
Over 600 free courses available Open University
TED ideas worth spreading
Video lectures VideoLectures.net is an open-access educational repository/portal of high-quality, mainly scientific video lectures.

Finding journal articles

Academic Source Complete This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete is a scholarly collection offering thousands of full-text journals covering a broad range of important areas of academic study including: anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women's studies, zoology
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window Coverage: accounting, economics, finance, international business and management. Also includes full-text books, company profiles, country economic reports, market research reports, trade journals and business magazines.
EMERALD This link opens in a new window Academic journal articles, often with a practical slant, covering business (management, marketing, accountancy, human resource management and information management. Excellent database. Articles with green ticks are available in fulltext.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Academic Edition This link opens in a new window A reference site for students, educators, and parents synthesizing editorially reviewed websites and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Financial Times Online This link opens in a new window FT.com (Financial Times Online). The Financial Times is a powerful research tool containing all the latest financial news, instant, incisive analysis and exclusive global reports. Available both on and off campus.
https://www.ft.com/tour
Health Research Premium This link opens in a new window Over 4,500 full text health and medical journals Plus instructional videos, grey literature, and more Your single point of access for many types of content such as Business and Management
HeinOnline (Law Database) This link opens in a new window
IEEE Xplore Digital Library This link opens in a new window Coverage includes IEEE publications, journals, transactions, conference proceedings, and international standards. Top database for computer science.
Info4Education This link opens in a new window Coverage includes British Standards, legislation and other guidance information related to the construction, health and safety, engineering, process and electronics industries.
Irish Times Online This link opens in a new window Fulltext access to the newspaper daily and a searchable archive of articles.
vLexJustis This link opens in a new window
MarketLine This link opens in a new window Country, industry and company profiles. Formerly known as Datamonitor.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window Search a database providing Scientific, Business, Accounting, Technical and Medical information. ScienceDirect is an excellent database providing access to fulltext and abstracts.
SocIndex This link opens in a new window Coverage: Journals, books and conference papers in sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines: abortion, criminology & criminal justice, demography, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, political sociology, religion, rural & urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse & other addictions.
SPORTDiscus This link opens in a new window
Taylor & Francis Social Science & Humanities Library This link opens in a new window
Westlaw.ie This link opens in a new window
Westlaw.uk This link opens in a new window

Why should I use an individual database instead of doing all my searches on Discover@AIT?

Discover@AIT allows you to search for a range of sources we have available on any given topic but once you start to research a topic in more depth you will want more flexibility to save your results and keep up to date with new publications.

Most databases allow you to save searches and set up saved search alerts that send you any new items that matches your search. This is one of the advantages of using the database directly rather than always using Discover@AIT.

Procedures for subscribing to email or RSS alerts vary for different databases. Check with your Subject Librarian.

Different Terminology Allocated to Journal Articles

Journals are basically Academic magazines.

The following list provides some basic explanations of the types of resources you are likely to be required to use in your assessments:

Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals: journals which are of a high academic standard due to being reviewed by academics in the field (may also be referred to as academic journals)
Periodical: a synonym for journal, but basically means they are published on a regular basis such as monthly
News: some sources may contain articles which can be used in research but sources may vary in quality. The Irish Times is a good source of news while tabloids are not.
Academic Journals: basically the same as peer-reviewed journals
Reviews: reviews of scholarly resources are often included in academic journals but they are not in themselves academic
Magazines: a journal of sorts but not necessarily peer-reviewed so be careful of including them as an academic source.

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