Finding books & articles
A good place to begin searching is in the Library catalogue. Use the Library catalogue to find books and journal articles on your topic.
- Library Catalogue The Library Catalogue is a good place to start your search. You can find many different information types in the one search.
To learn how to use the Library Catalogue, watch this video:
Example:
A Library Catalogue search for the keywords: climate control interior found the below book:
Tips for searching...
- Books
Use general or broad keywords to find books all about the location, architect or architectural process in your assignment question.
- Journal articles
Try restricting your search to peer reviewed articles. Because peer reviewed articles have been double-checked by academic experts, it's easier to be sure that the words and ideas you're using are of sufficient quality for a university assignment.
Evaluating your results
Not all the information you get from a search will be useful. A successful search will show results relevant to your topic. If your results are not relevant go back and try different keywords in your search.
To evaluate whether your source is of sufficient quality use the C.C.O.W. Test. Click on the letters of the acronym to learn more:
Advanced Searching
In this search we have added a few synonyms for the word interior, as well as for atmospheric control. We've also tried to introduce the additional keywords of material and technology.
The full search syntax is:
("atmospheric control" OR "climate control" OR "passive design") AND (interior OR indoor OR building) AND (material OR technology)
Notice that when you add the extra search terms it changes the top article hit in the search?
Other places to search
Using the same searches you've mapped out earlier, try using some of the key resources for interior architecture (linked below). You'll find the results are different in each database. The picture above is one of the top hits from ScienceDirect.
- ProQuest Proquest is a multidisciplinary database that is great for topics on architecture, interior design and art history. It contains books, journals, magazines, theses and news.
- ScienceDirect ScienceDirect is great for journal article content in areas like passive thermal design and green building.
- Taylor and Francis Online Journals Taylor and Francis contains a rich collection of high quality academic writing on architectural theory, as well as technical writing on building and construction.
As a final note, remember how our search topic mentioned case studies? If the place you're looking seems to have a lot of good information, try adding the term case study to your search to see if you can find anything (the article in the picture below is from Proquest).
Related guides
You might be able to find what you need in one of the related guides below
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