Education

One-to-one or small group help: If you need help or advice on finding information for your study or research in Education, and you have had a look at the help provided on these pages or in our paper guides, then you are welcome to get in touch and book an appointment with one of the Education Subject Librarians, Hazel Rothera and Ruth Dryden - contact details in the box on the right. For quick queries, you can always come to the Enquiry Desk when Harcourt Hill Library is open.

Off-campus? Here's our help specifically for distance learners and off-campus students.

Need help using our Electronic Library? Download our Guide (Word or PDF), then if still stuck contact us.

Having trouble getting into e-books or journals off-campus? Try our tutorial... Powerpoint (4.6 MB, for PCs or laptops) or Google Doc (best for mobile devices)

Also check out the rest of our Guides and Handouts below.

What are databases?

• British Education Index -  provides references to 350 British and selected European English language journals in the field of education and training. The database also provides limited coverage of books, reports and conference literature.
• Education Research Complete -full text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas and levels of education in the UK and internationally. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,840 journals, as well as full text for more than 950 journals.
• Education-Line- contains current education research and conference papers collected by Leeds University. The papers are predominantly British with some international coverage.
• ERIC - American based education database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC includes coverage of journal articles, conferences, and books.
• Other useful databases for related areas (Psychology and Child Development, Management, Social Sciences, General including newspapers)

All the above databases are available to Brookes staff and students from on and off campus. These databases are password controlled, especially when are accessing from off campus. All the databases listed are controlled by the Athens password system. Please see the library's Athens guide for further details.

Help with searching databases

Several thousand education journals are available full text online:

• Browse a subject list of education journals for further details.
• View a complete list of all our electronic journals from the A-to-Z e-journals service. - type your journal title (not an article title or topic) in the Find box
• Education Research Complete is an online package of over 1800 education journals - about half of which are full-text - which you can browse, or search like a database.
• Search the Library Catalogue for details of all our print and online journals. Enter the journal title (not an article title!) into the keyword or title search box. If you get lots of books in your search results, go to the Refine Your Search menu on the left and select Electronic & Printed Journals Catalogue from the Collection list.
• The Catalogue does not provide information about individual articles from journals. You will need to use a database to find articles on a particular topic - see the Databases list above.
• E-journals require a password if you are off campus (usually, but not always, your Athens username and password).

For more help finding and accessing journals, try our guide, Finding Education journal s and articles (Word or PDF) or our screen-by-screen tutorial: Powerpoint (4.6 MB, for PCs or laptops) or Google Doc (best for mobile devices)

Follow the instructions below or download our E-books for Education students guide (Word or PDF). If you want a screen-by-screen demo, download our tutorial on accessing e-books and e-journals: Powerpoint (4.6 MB, for PCs or laptops) or Google Doc (best for mobile devices)

• First: go to the Brookes Library home page and log in to Athens

• To look up a specific e-book or find e-books on a topic, use the Library Catalogue. To start with, search as you would for an ordinary printed book. Then go to the Refine Your Search menu on the left and click on Electronic Books Catalogue. (If you don't see that option in the menu, there are no e-books matching your search - try a different, broader search.)
• If an e-book you want comes up (to see an example, try Janet Moyles' Beginning teaching, beginning learning), click on its title and then on the On and off campus access link.

• To browse our e-books: come out of the Catalogue, go to the Library home page and click on E-books in the Quick Links. Scroll down to the E-book Suppliers section. The Education-related e-books are all in the first two packages listed, MyiLibrary and Dawsonera.
• Click on either package to connect to it: you may get an extra login screen where you have to click on the "Athens login" link (don't try to use the login boxes on the e-book supplier's page, which won't work).

• Browsing MyiLibrary: on the MyiLibrary home page, under Browse by Subject click on SEE ALL next to Education.
• Browsing Dawsonera: on the Dawsonera home page, type "education" in the Quick Search box; or go to Advanced Search and under Subject select SOCIAL SCIENCES - Education.

• If you want to search for a specific topic both packages have Quick Search and Advanced Search options.

• Once you have found the book you want: click Read online (in Dawsonera) or Open now (in MyiLibrary). Then use the Contents menu on the left hand side, or the Next and Previous page buttons on each page.

• For help with searching, printing (restricted to a few pages), making notes and other features, use the Help buttons at the top of the screen.

• Curriculum and individual subject areas
• Early Years
• Further Education
• Government, policy and standards
• Higher Education
• Primary Education
• Secondary Education
• Schools and teaching

Early Childhood Studies/Early Years (Word document)

Education: a guide to finding information (Word or PDF)

E-books for Education students (Word or PDF)

Education: a guide to finding journals and journal articles (Word or PDF)

Electronic Library: a guide for Education students (Word or PDF)

Education: a guide to finding Statistics

School Experience Centre (SEC)

Getting started - finding the things on your reading list

Further research - finding more information

EndNote: to help you manage your references and write your bibliography