Help! My paper is due tomorrow!

What do you do when you need some information at the last minute?

Don't panic! Many materials at the Vanderbilt libraries are available to you all of the time, online.

The steps listed in the Getting Started With Your Research guide are still valid for you to take to find articles, books, and other materials, but there are a couple of strategies that can help you get your hands on reliable information right from your computer.
 

Get to Full Text resources fast

If you are searching in Acorn, Vanderbilt's library catalog, you can limit your searches to only electronic books, journals and scholarly websites:

In Acorn use the library: pulldown and select INTERNET

Use databases that contain full text articles. You can find them on the Articles & Databases page in two ways:

1. From the Articles & Databases page, take a look at databases by your subject area. Look for databases with the designation Full Text Resource! These either contain full text articles or have links to full text.
    
2. Near the bottom of the Articles & Databases page, look for the link that says Searchable databases of fulltext electronic journals.
    

Find quality information in your subject area fast

Subject specialists at the Libraries look for great information sources to help you with your research. They have created lists of high-quality links in many different subject areas and for many different types of publications.

Take a look at the subject guide for your area:

From the Library home page, look under the "Research Assistance" section for Subject Guides. Find your subject area and enjoy!
 

Need a quick fact, statistic, quotation, definition, style manual... ?

Try our Reference Tools collection. It is full of reliable sources of definitions, facts, biographical information, geographical sources and a lot more.

From the Library home page, look under the "Databases & E-Resources" section for Reference Tools.
 

If you need help

Remember that librarians are here to help! You can stop by any of the libraries during reference hours or regular business hours to talk to someone who can help you. If you can wait for an answer until the next business day, try our Ask Us! reference assistance.

Prepared for the Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to MIT Libraries for granting permission to modify and use their "Information Navigator" tutorial.