Most academic literature in the Western world is published in English – but in many cases researchers need to also look to literature in other languages. In-depth research for a comprehensive literature review is a case in point.
National union catalogues
National union catalogues (single points of access to multiple library holdings) such as the Danish Bibliotek.dk or the Swedish LIBRIS are great places to start the process of discovery. Simply google [union catalog [name of country]].
Another great resource is OCLC WorldCat, the “mother of library catalogues”. This database provides access to a worldwide joint catalogue of national and university library catalogues. Through WorldCat, you have access to the bibliographic records of most published academic contents.
You may have heard us caution against over-reliance on Google Scholar, but for the purpose of identifying non-English-language contents, it is one of the best resources available. Learning how to focus your searches in Google Scholar, however, is essential.
Search Google scholar as a library database
Treating Google Scholar like any other bibliographic database is the best approach. Thus, the query ("fish bowl" OR "fish tank" OR aquarium) AND minnow* will prompt Google Scholar to look for all documents that use either of the suggested terminological variants to represent a glass-walled habitat for a single or multiple minnows. The advanced search feature is very helpful and may be accessed via the hamburger menu in the top left corner of the screen.
Get access via inter-library loans
We can procure most items not readily available from CBS Library either through the purchasing of hard or soft copies of the title or via our interlibrary loans teams. Send an e-mail or place your ILL request in Libsearch.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to your liaison librarian if you wish to talk about how best to approach your research process.