Welcome! The University Libraries offer an array of services and resources to support your academic journey. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us!
There are a number of ways to get in touch with your librarians and library community described below. Please keep in mind that we welcome these connections and look forward to answering questions, both big and small. Reach out today!
The Libraries chat service allows you use your computer or mobile device to ask a question and receive a real-time answer from a librarian during business hours.
Reach a librarian during research desk hours at 303-492-7521.
The library community is made up of information specialists knowledgeable in a range of subject areas. Find your subject specialist and contact by email!
Looking for more in-depth help? Schedule a research consultation for a date and time that fits your schedule. A librarian can coach you through the research process at any stage. We will meet with you in person, online, over the phone or by email.
When you are off campus and you click on a link to a resource on the libraries website, you will see an authentication screen that looks like this:
Screenshot of federated identity service
CU-Boulder students, staff and faculty: Log in with your Identikey username and password and you will be linked directly to the resource.
Another option to access CU library resources is through CU-Boulder's VPN service. VPN provides a secure connection to the campus network from any location, as long as the device has an internet connection. The VPN can be used to access campus resources (e.g. most library resources, file servers) or to securely browse the Internet. CU-Boulder Faculty, Staff and Student affiliations automatically receive a VPN entitlement. Some users with slower internet connections do find that using VPN can limit connection speed. Thanks to our EZ Proxy Identikey authentication you do not need VPN to access the majority of University Libraries resources.
Learn more and find download instructions and steps.
Many thanks to Caroline Sinkinson for creating and compiling much of this content for Education online master's students, which has been adapted here to welcome new graduate students to the School of Education more broadly.
The Education Research Guide and the Linguistics Research Guide are comprehensive overviews to education-related or linguistics-related resources for your academic work. We also have research guides for certain languages with the resources we offer about or in, those languages. These guides are great to bookmark in your favorite web browser so you can return to them easily.
A great way to get to know the scholarly conversation happening in your sub-field is to browse and become familiar with the scholarly journals for your area. BrowZine lets you visually browse our journal subscriptions, sign up for alerts when new issues are published, and save journals as "Favorites."
Watch this video to hear tips from Linds, the former education librarian. Use the Education Subject Guide, listed above, as your portal to more recommendations and tools.
Our Interlibrary Loan service is a great option to track down hard to find items. This free service can help locate PDFs of scholarly articles, or 1-3 chapters of print books that will be sent to you as PDFs.
Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education by 
Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education by You may also search and locate ebooks through the library system. Simply search and locate the text, follow the links to full text, enter your identikey and begin reading.
Start searching now:
As of June 1, 2022, the University Libraries services are still experiencing some reductions due to COVID-19 impacts. We are offer Contactless Pick-up of print materials for those able to come to campus, including Prospector Interlibrary Loan services. Our Books by Mail services are not currently operating, but this may change over the course of the next few months. The information below is included so you know more about what services we regularly offer. For any questions about accessing materials, please feel free to contact your librarian, Linds Roberts (linds.roberts@colorado.edu), our Ask A Librarian service, or the Libraries' general help email (Libraries@colorado.edu).
When you've located books that you'd like to use, there are a few ways to retrieve the material. You may visit the library space in Boulder, or you might request that the item is mailed to you.
Requesting Library Materials Mailed to You
Keep in mind:
A few simple steps:
A body of non-fictional books and writings published on a particular subject; considered collectively.
A formal, reflective survey of the most significant and relevant works of published and peer-reviewed academic research on a particular topic, summarizing and discussing their findings and methodologies in order to reflect the current state of knowledge in the field and the key questions raised.
A discipline‐specific publication through which academics and other researchers can publish and disseminate their work, the academic journal normally takes the form of a collection of articles, research papers, or reviews which have been submitted to the journal's editorial board. In most cases papers being considered for publication are submitted for scrutiny and appraisal by recognized academics or authorities in the appropriate field, who may recommend that the paper be accepted as it stands, or that specific revisions be made, or that the paper be rejected for publication. This process of refereeing is known as peer review.
The process by which an academic journal passes a paper submitted for publication to independent experts for comments on its suitability and worth; refereeing.
Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
Scholarly articles are typically written for a very specialized audience of fellow scholars and practitioners. Authors may assume that the reader has prior knowledge about the field. Don't be surprised if you find jargon or unfamiliar language! Try to get an overview of what the author's main points, claims, and questions may be. Many scholarly articles have similar structures or headings that may help you find your way. Look for sections like the abstract, introduction, section headings, and conclusion. They may offer cues that help you to infer the article's purpose and main argument.
Click on the gold plus boxes to learn more about the parts of a scholarly article.
The following list are some factors to consider when evaluating scholarly sources. This list is not exhaustive, and the criteria will vary depending on your purpose in looking for the information. What other factors might you consider?
These terms are often used interchangeably: Scholarly article, Peer reviewed article, or Refereed article, or Journal article
If you answer "yes" to most of these questions, chances are good that you've found a scholarly article! Still not sure? Ask a CU Librarian!
Many library databases have a filter option to only show peer reviewed articles. These filters aren't perfect, but are much more likely to show you the types of information you many need for an academic assignment. They often weed out non-peer-reviewed materials like dissertations, books reviews, news articles, reports, or magazine articles.
Popular Magazines
| Tone: | Casual and accessible |
| Purpose: | Inform, entertain |
| Form: | Attractive, digital, print |
| Authors: | Staff writers or journalists |
| Review: | Approval by editor |
| Audience: | Broad general audience |
| Content: | News, opinion, short articles |
Academic Books
| Tone: | Formal, may be specialized |
| Purpose: | Inform |
| Form: | Digital, print |
| Authors: | Scholars or specialists |
| Review: | Approval by editor |
| Audience: | Academic |
| Content: | Background, overview, analysis |
Academic Journals
| Tone: | Formal and specialized |
| Purpose: | Inform, argue |
| Form: | Digital or print |
| Authors: | Scholars |
| Review: | Peer review |
| Audience: | Academic |
| Content: | Research, analysis, 10+pages |
Trade Magazines
| Tone: | Understandable within profession |
| Purpose: | Inform |
| Form: | Digital or print |
| Authors: | Staff writers or specialists |
| Review: | Editor; professional associations |
| Audience: | Targeted practitioners |
| Content: | Reviews, trends, case studies |
Government information
| Tone: | Formal |
| Purpose: | News, Inform |
| Form: | Digital or print |
| Authors: | Varies |
| Review: | Approval by editor |
| Audience: | Politicians, citizens |
| Content: | Policy, analysis, legislation |
Newspapers
| Tone: | Casual and accessible |
| Purpose: | Inform, entertain |
| Form: | Digital, print |
| Authors: | Staff writers or journalists |
| Review: | Approval by editor |
| Audience: | Broad general audience |
| Content: | Current, brief, news, events |
Many library databases have advanced search screens like this:
| Boolean Operator | Example | What it does |
| AND | bilingual education AND language policy | Narrows your search |
| OR | teens OR adolescents OR "young adults" | Broadens your search |
| NOT | "heritage language immersion" NOT "dual language immersion" | Weeds out unhelpful stuff |
| "" (Quotation marks) | "second language acquisition" | Searches an exact phrase, those words in that order |
| * (Asterisk) |
communic* (will include possibilities like communication, communicators, communicating, etc) |
Includes all possible word ending variations |
Taking the time to break your research interest apart will help you to construct powerful search strings. Complete this form to produce a downloadable worksheet. The worksheet will help guide your search strategy. Scroll down and use blue next buttons to complete the form.
If you prefer, you may make copies of the Google documents linked below.
The 2nd example is an ebook. If the work is not directly available online or must be purchased, use "Available from," rather than "Retrieved from," and point readers to where they can find it. For books available in print form and electronic form, include the publish date in parentheses after the author's name.
A great free resource for more in-depth APA Style help is Purdue OWL's style guide.
Use information legally and ethically
To use information legally and ethically, you need to cite any information not originally created by you:
Zotero is a wonderful free software you can download to organize your sources, create your own library of articles, and easily create APA citations for papers and presentations.
Download / activate:
Zotero Standalone/Desktop version
Zotero Connectors (browser plugins for Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
Zotero for MS Word plugin
Create a Test folder (aka a Collection) in your Zotero library to add and practice creating entries
Practice adding items using the Zotero Connector (try adding from Google Scholar, the ProQuest database, or Libraries’ OneSearch box)
Right click on one or more items and choose "Create Bibliography from Item(s)," choose APA format for the Citation Style and "Copy to Clipboard" as the Output Method
You can also Make an appointment with Linds for help setting up Zotero.
All CU Boulder alumni may visit campus to use the libraries subscription databases after you graduate or leave CU. Since a campus visit isn't always convenient or feasible, here are some great options to continue using scholarly and multimedia resources after graduation!
Graduation by Ian McMorran under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Public libraries can also be a wonderful resource for scholarly or multimedia content!
Prospector: is a group of regional libraries, which gives you access to 32 million books, journals, DVDs, CDs, videos and other materials. With a single search you can find and borrow materials. Most items check-out for 3 weeks with one renewal allowed; most a/v media items check-out for 1 week with no renewal.
Do you have a library card for one of the Prospector participating public libraries? If so, you may request most CU materials through Prospector and have them delivered to a branch near you.