Consult Subject Guides for subject-specific databases
Do you want to know if the Library owns a book? Start with the Library Catalog. The Library Catalog searches for items that the Library owns (print, media, or online).
When you find the book that you need, you can retrieve it yourself from the bookstacks and check it out immediately from our Circulation Desk. Or, you can use our Paging & Pickup service. Select "Request for Pickup" in the catalog record and you'll be notified when it is ready to be checked out.
Staff of the University of Chicago can borrow unlimited items from the Library for quarter-long loans.
Articles Plus is a Library database that cross-searches many of the Library's subscription databases for articles, book chapters, and more. If you have a citation, just enter the title/author of the article into the Articles Plus search box to see if Library has access to the full-text.
If you happen to find an article without a full-text link, use , a service to help you locate the text you need. Find It! will present several options for getting the text, including full-text online, Scan and Deliver, or interlibrary loan.
Articles Plus is also a great database to search for articles by topic. Just enter keywords to retrieve search results from the Library's many research databases.
Consult a subject-specific database if you wish to narrow your search to a specific area of study, such as Art History, Music, or Philosophy. The Library has Subject guides that cover all the areas of study at the University, as well as contact information for librarians with expertise in those areas.
Use a citation management tool, such as Zotero or Endnote, to collect, organize and annotate your references and to create notes and bibliographies.
The Library offers support for all Citation Management tools, with specialization in Zotero and Endnote.
Almost all Library databases can be accessed from off-campus. The easiest way to do this is to use links from the Library website. You will then be prompted for your CNetID and password to authenticate yourself as an authorized user.
If you find sources through Google Scholar or other search engines, you may not automatically get access to Library resources. Use the ProxyIt bookmarklet or Libkey Nomad in these situations. There's more information on these in our guide to off-campus access.
View the 90 second video below to learn how to access library resources off-campus.