CMU LibGuides: English 76-108 First-Year Writing Research Guide: Find Sources

Finding Books & Articles

Finding Books & Articles (and more)

CMU Libraries Catalog
Libraries Catalog contains records for the majority of our physical and digital collections. Resource types include: books, peer-reviewed articles, eBooks, journals, music scores, audio CDs, conference proceedings, reports, government documents, film, dissertations, theses, newspaper articles, book reviews, and digital images.
Databases, eResources, & Tools
Use databases to find articles, proceedings, reports, datasets and other material for your assignments and research projects.
Journals & Newspapers
Browse all library electronic journals and find quick access to popular newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and more.
Technology Lending
Browse our collection of technology items, including iPads, DVD players for laptops, calculators, charging cables and headphones.
Textbooks/Course Reserves
Check the catalog for your textbook or search Course Reserves to see if your instructor put a copy on reserve for library use. See more information about textbooks in our Textbooks Research Guide.

Where are the books?

The majority of our books as well as our video collection and study spaces are located in Hunt Library. Books are located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of Hunt Library. Check them out at the Circulation Desk on the 1st floor.

Sorrells Library, located on the 4th floor of Wean Hall, focuses on research support for the fields of computer science, engineering, mathematical sciences, physics and robotics. Sorrells also contains a number of reservable study spaces

Hunt Library Hours
Sorrells Library Hours
Reserve a Study Space
Need a place to study? Looking for a room to work on a project? Reserve an individual seat or a group study space at Hunt Library or Sorrells Library, then check in/out all from the same page.

General databases

The Libraries have access to hundreds of scholarly databases full of books, journal articles, newspapers, and more, but there are a few that are good to check to get started. Need a more specialized database? Check out our subject research guides or ask a librarian.

These databases are interdisciplinary and will contain a wide range of articles. This can become overwhelming to search sometimes, so always remember you can contact a First-Year Writing Librarian for help.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Use this link to configure Google Scholar to find full-text at the CMU Libraries. Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Provides access to databases across all major subject areas, including business, health and medical, social sciences, arts, humanities, religion, education, science, and technology.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Articles in important academic journals from all disciplines (latest few years not available); also eBooks from leading academic publishers, as well as some images.
EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window
Covers various databases from EBSCO in multiple disciplines. Most individual databases within this collection are listed alphabetically by title. EBSCOhost will have new user interface in January 2025; see more details.
*Users with an in-library Guest/Researcher pass should use this URL to access EBSCOhost databases: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip&custid=s8368349&groupid=main&profile=ehost
Gale Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Articles in academic journals from all disciplines. Database Guide.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the literature of the sciences, social sciences and the arts & humanities providing indexes and links to cited references for each article.