LibGuides: Information for teachers and students at local schools: Resources

The Library supports each University department by providing online links to resources, gateways and tutorials useful at that level. You can use these subject guides as a starting point for researching information on Education or individual secondary level subjects (for example, Chemistry). Follow the link below to explore our guides

Please note that whilst many resources are free for you to access, some resources, including almost all online materials, are only available to members of the University of Reading.

Subject guides
Guides to specialist resources in subjects studied at the University.

Search Summon for Open Access articles

School students can search the Library's discovery service Summon to find freely available articles and other materials. Search using the box below to find only Open Access materials.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a good source of Open Access articles and other materials, although it isn't possible to restrict results to free items. Use the search box below:

Useful links

Below are some suggested links to help you assist your pupils.

Evaluating websites
Hints on assessing the reliability of information you find on the Internet.
What is a research article?
Some tips on recognising an academic article
Types of publication
This page contains information about how to find different types of publication, for example finding books in the Library
Citing references
Includes guidance on why, when and how to use references correctly in your academic writing.
The Web
A brief guide to finding information which includes links to the main search engines.
Guide to free research resources
A guide to free and Open Access resources available to students, alumni and the public.

Resources for your school

JCS Online Resources
More than 30 high quality online educational resources from 12 publishers are available at highly discounted prices to UK Secondary Schools and Sixth Form Colleges

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is the academic version of Google. It allows you to search for scholarly literature (journal articles, books, patents) from a variety of sources, including academic publishers, professional societies, and online repositories.
It is unclear which publishers are included in Google Scholar, so it shouldn't be used as your only source for a comprehensive literature search. For references to reliable, academic sources search our Summon discovery service or databases covering your subject.

Link to our full-text
You can set your preferences on Google Scholar to show links to full-text articles in all of our e-journals.

1) Click on the three lines on the top left of the home screen.
2) Select 'Settings'.
3) Select 'Library Links' on the left of the screen.
4) In the search box type 'Reading' and select the 'Reading University Library - Full-Text @ Reading' option.
5) Save your settings.

When you do a search, look for a 'Full-Text @ Reading' link to the right of references in your results list. This indicates that we have a subscription which will give you access to the article. Click on this link to access the full-text.

If the 'Full-text @ Reading' link does not appear next to a reference it indicates that it isn't covered by our subscriptions and you probably won't be able to access the article.

If you are off-campus you will need to login to access the articles. You will usually be prompted to login as soon as you click on the link to the article. If this doesn't happen you will need to look for an institutional or Shibboleth login link once you reach the journal's website. For more guidance see Accessing e-journals.

Google Scholar Button
Google have produced a plugin for Chrome, Firefox and Safari which allows you to easily search for and cite articles. Highlight the title of an article in the page you are reading and then click the Scholar button and it will search for the article on Google Scholar in a pop up window. To get a formatted reference for a search result press the quote button next to it and the reference will appear in three different styles.

To make the most of this tool set up the University of Reading as a 'Library Link' using the instructions above.

Google Books
Digitised versions of books, which are fully searchable. Books are often only partially digitised.