Leeds University Library

Finding and evaluating information


The resources on this page will help you to search for, evaluate, manage and keep up to date with information for use in your academic work.

Person looking through binoculars

Planning and preparing

It is essential to understand what you are being asked to do before you start searching for information.

Finding the information you need: basic

Using appropriate and relevant information sources will help to strengthen the quality of your work.

Reading lists

Your reading lists are a good starting point for finding good quality, relevant information:

Searching beyond your reading lists

Finding the information you need: advanced

As your course progresses you will be expected to find and use a wide variety of sources and to research more independently. This will be especially important for your  final-year project or dissertation or when you undertake master's-level study.

Finding information for your subject

Your Library Subject support page is the main place to find the most relevant sources of information in your subject, including the key journal databases. It is important to search these databases to get the most up-to-date journal articles and research in your area.

Choose your subject from the list below and then select "Subject resources".

Advanced searching tips

The Advanced Health literature searching guide is helpful to students in the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Special Collections

Our Special Collections contain historic, rare and archival material and can be especially useful for accessing primary sources of information for your dissertation. The collections cover wide-ranging subjects across hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable manuscripts and archives and nearly 200,000 rare books.
See the Special Collections site for more information.

Evaluating the information you find

It is essential to be able to think critically and judge what information is relevant and appropriate for your purpose.

  • Skills@Library Critical thinking
    As well as evaluating whether information is appropriate and relevant, you need to be able to analyse more deeply the information that you read. Our Critical thinking topic contains detailed information, advice and activities to develop your critical thinking and reading skills.

Managing the information you find

Storing your references

Social bookmarking

Keep up to date with new information

Keeping up to date with new information in your research or study area can be time-consuming. Using alerting services and RSS can make this a more efficient process.