Research Tools

Find Books and other Library Materials

To find books and other library materials that VU owns, use Galileo, our online catalog.
to Galileo, or learn more Galileo.
If you don't find what you need in Galileo, use Worldcat to find items held at libraries around the USA and the world.
to Worldcat, or learn more Worldcat.
To learn more about the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), which has more than 4 million items that we can borrow on your behalf, click here.
To search Galileo for items on RESERVE, click here.
To find MOVIES (DVDs or videos), click here for directions.
If you need to borrow items you find in WorldCat or CRL, you will need to use our Interlibrary Loan program. To find out more about Interlibrary Loan, click here.

Find Articles

If you want to search for journal, magazine, or newspaper articles, use our databases. These databases allow you to search across many sources at once for articles on your topic. Valparaiso University subscribes to about 100 databases.
Database Name List: Use if you know the name the database you want to search.
Database Subject List: Use if you don't know which database to search and want to find a database by subject.
If you want to know if we have a journal (either in print or electronically), or you have the citation for a journal article and want to know if we have that article, use JournaLocator.
GoogleScholar is Google's article database. To see if we have articles held in GoogleScholar, click on the "Resources @ My Library" links below citations. Keep in mind that since this is a free database, and not one we subscribe to, they may ask you to pay for the full text of some articles. Do not pay for access to those articles; check our holdings first, and if we don't have them, order them through Interlibrary Loan.
If you need an article that we don't own or have access to electronically, you will need to use our Interlibrary Loan program. Please make sure to check both JournaLocator AND GALILEO to make sure we don't have an article before ordering a copy through Interlibrary Loan. To find out more about Interlibrary Loan, click here.
If you're confused about the options available for finding journal articles, check out our help guide entitled, "Accessing Journals & Periodicals".

Other Research Tools

Government Information: Valparaiso University is a Government Depository. To search for Government Information, go to http://www.valpo.edu/library/govdocs/index.html. We also have pages available to help you find Government Statistics and Government Databases.
Course & Program Pathfinders: For every class that comes to the Christopher Center for library instruction, a Course (or Program) Pathfinder is created. These pathfinders include research strategies geared toward specific topics. To browse these, go to the Course & Program Pathfinders index page.
Online Reference Resources: We maintain a list of Online Reference Resources, which includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, and directories.
Center for Research Libraries: To learn more about the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), which has more than 4 million items that we can borrow on your behalf, click here.
VU Major and Subject Area websites: The library maintains a directory of useful websites, arranged by Subject Area and VU Major.
Library User Information Bulletins and Research Guides: The library has created and maintains about thirty Library User Information Bulletins and Research Guides. The Library User & Research Guides cover many topics, including how to evaluate web resources, and a guide to the Library of Congress Call Number System. To browse through a list of these guides, go to http://www.valpo.edu/library/user/index.html.
Citing Resources: If you need help with citing resources for your research, whether those resources are books, articles, or online sources, use our Citing Resources Guide.