Introduction
This subject guide highlights some key discipline resources to get you started with study and research.
- Refer to the New Students Library Guide for everything you need to know about Library services and resources.
- Build your researching, reading and writing skills with the Research Essentials Library Guide.
- Streamline your access to online resources with the Library's quick access tools.
Encyclopedias and handbooks
Databases and journals
Use databases to search across many academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time.
Refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page for a comprehensive list of available resources.
Core Arts and Humanities databases (try these first):
The selection of multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from different subject areas.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has. We highly recommend searching in at least one other database on this list as well as Discovery.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is another large, multidisciplinary database. It looks through journals, books, and conference papers. It has some advanced tools that can help you discover new research quickly - the 'times cited' and 'related articles' links are great time-savers. While it doesn't always have full-text PDFs it is still an excellent place to look for your research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
Gender studies-specific databases:
For more focused results try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture, Parts 1-5The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history.
- Australian Women's Register"The searchable-on-line Australian Women's Register covers biographical data about Australian women and their organisations."
- British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries 1500-1950British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters spanning 300 years. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
- Defining Gender, 1450-1910Collection of original source material from British and European archives enriches the teaching and research experience of history, literature, sociology, education and cultural studies from a gendered perspective. Manuscripts, printed works and illustrations addresses the key issues from both masculine and feminine perspectives. They are indexed by person and subject across all five sections.
- Gale OneFile: Gender StudiesGender Studies Collection covers a comprehensive periodical collection supporting significant aspects in culture and society.
- Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs"The collection contains more than 4,500 publications from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and continental Europe. Users can trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of that country's feminist movement on other countries and their movements."
- Latin American Women Writers"Searchable collection of prose, poetry, and drama composed by women writing in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Includes Latin American feminists and revolutionaries essays, who address the universal concerns of women in every age and the distinctive issues of their struggles in the region."
- LGBT Thought and Culture"Includes books, journals & archival material on political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day. The collection illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgendered, and bisexual individuals and the community."
- Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries"Brings together 105,000 pages of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts."
- North American Women's Drama"Contains plays by women playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays."
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window"Collection of women’s diaries and correspondence spanning more than 300 years. Presents the personal experiences of hundreds of women. The writings provide a detailed record of what women wore, ate, read, their working conditions and amusements, relationships with lovers, family and friends. Includes their church attendance frequency, how they viewed their connection to God, and how they prayed."
- Perdita Manuscripts, 1500-1700Collection of manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires since 1820Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires Since 1820 explores prominent themes in world history since 1820: conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices. It includes documents related to the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the British, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and United States empires, and settler societies in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.
- Women and social movements international: 1840 to present"Collection of writings of women activists, their personal letters and diaries, and the proceedings of conferences at which pivotal decisions were made, this collection lets you see how women’s social movements shaped much of the events and attitudes that have defined modern life."
- Women and social movements in the United States 1600-2000: Scholars Edition"Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. The collection currently includes 110 document projects and archives with almost 4,200 documents and more than 150,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by more than 2,200 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools."
- Women and the LawCollection that brings together books, biographies and periodicals dedicated to women's roles in society and the law. Research the progression of women's roles and rights in society over the past 200 years.
- Women in the National ArchivesThis collection consists of a finding aid to women's studies resources in The U.K. National Archives and original documents on the suffrage question in Britain, the Empire and colonial territories, which cover the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and the granting of women's suffrage in colonial territories, 1930-1962.
Books
To find books on a particular subject, do a keyword search in the Library Catalogue. Alternatively you can search by title, author, etc.
You can also find books on similar topics through the subject headings in item records. Click on these headings to find related subjects and titles.
Looking for a book we don't have or is not on our shelves?
Inter-Library Loans
University of Melbourne staff and students can request resources through the Library’s Inter-Library Loans service. For more information visit the ILL web page, or you can access the request forms.
A CAVAL card allows you to borrow from other universities and TAFEs. Visit the CAVAL website to find out how to sign up for a CAVAL card.
You can then use the Trove website to see which library has the book you want.
Theses
Research methods
Many disciplines rely on research methods to guide the process of conducting primary research.
To find methods for your discipline, do a keyword search in the Library Catalogue and add your discipline, e.g. sociology AND "research method*".
To get started, try some of the resources below:
- SAGE Research MethodsSAGE Research Methods is a research methods tool which links SAGE’s renowned book, journal and reference content with truly advanced search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings. SAGE Research Methods Cases is a collection of case studies of real social research that faculty can use in their teaching. Cases are original, specially commissioned, and designed to help students understand often abstract methodological concepts by introducing them to case studies of real research projects.
Streaming videos and media
- EduTV (Informit)"EduTV is a Video Streaming service of over 50,000+ broadcast programs from free-to-air and pay TV channels in Australia. Coverage commences with 2006 and includes content across a wide range of learning areas. Free to air content is recorded from the ABC, SBS, NITV, 9, 7, 10, etc. channels. EduTV also includes several programs broadcast on Pay TV such as The History Channel, National Geographic, BBC Knowledge and Discovery channels."
- Kanopy (Kanopy)The Kanopy Streaming Service is the leading supplier of streamed videos to global academic institutions. The service utilises sophisticated platform and delivery technology to offer a new world of online engagement that empowers University of Melbourne Library to stream on demand video at optimal quality to their registered staff and students.
Explore the catalogue of over 20,000 videos from the world’s most prominent filmmakers and production houses. Specially curated collections cover a wide range educational disciplines including literacy, mathematics, history and issues in society. Kanopy also offers a hosting service allowing for DVDs to be uploaded and streamed online provided digital rights is obtained. Kanopy offers a large range of Australian content and videos can be searched using the library catalogue. - LGBT Studies in Video"LGBT Studies in Video is a cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. This first-of-its-kind collection features award-winning documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics."
Websites
You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.
This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.
Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu.
Some website suggestions to get you started:
- Australian Lesbian and Gay ArchivesThe Archives is the a community group in Australia that actively collects and preserves LGBTIQ material from across the country, and makes it readily accessible. It includes material of national and international scope including material on the historical life of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities of Australia.
- GLBTQ ArchivesThe glbtq project was founded in 2000 by Publisher Wik Wikholm to create the world's largest encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture and history and to deliver it online.
- Women & Gender Studies Section (WGSS) websiteCreated by the Women & Gender Studies Section of the US Association of College & Research Libraries, this website brings together some useful links on online resources related to gender studies.
Referencing and citing
Contact us
Ask a question on Library Chat
