While Google is often seen as the world's library, its results are uneven and generally not as useful for university study than academic databases. Google Scholar can be helpful, but is confusing to use and contains a lot of material that is not solidly academic (preprints not peer reviewed, predatory journal articles, 2nd year undergraduate research papers, even AI generated materials). Welcome to a whole new world of information.
As of July 18, 2025, Library OneSearch will have a new interface. You can preview it here: https://research.ebsco.com/c/bljv25/search. See this set of tutorials for guidance on the new system: https://libguides.twu.ca/c.php?g=743110&p=5370913. Here is a basic tutorial to get you started:
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A tutorial for the old OneSearch interface (expires July 18, 2025)
As of July 18, 2025, our library OneSearch interface will change. The starting point will be the same - choose the Books tab:
Here is a tutorial to show you how to access ebook full text:
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Here is a tutorial to the old interface, expiring July 18, 2025
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Library OneSearch will change its interface July 18, 2025. Here is a tutorial to help you access the full text of articles:
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The old interface (expires July 18, 2025)
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Not all of our databases are supplied by EBSCO. For tutorials to those databases (and our EBSCO databases), go to the Database Tutorials by Subject tab.
It depends. There are several citation formats: APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and SBL. Each has its own features. For guides to each format, see:
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Keywords for searching need to be closely connected to your research question. If you have a research question that states the goal of your project, try using terminology directly from the connection, or synonyms of those words.
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These slides will show you how to find formatted citations in various types of databases:
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Land Acknowledgement
Trinity Western University's Langley campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Stó:lō people. We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and learn on this land.
