The Cullom-Davis Library provides access to many different books, journals, and other materials to help you complete your coursework at Bradley University.
Many of these materials are available online, and if they aren’t, you can go online to request them to be sent to you via your library accounts.
However, to access these materials, the catalogs and databases that they’re stored in need to be able to recognize that you’re associated with Bradley and have permission to view them.
For this reason, it’s important to log into the library. There are a few different places you’ll need to use your Bradley username and password to get access to everything the library provides:
The catalog is where you can search for books, e-books, DVDs, and other physical materials at Bradley. It is also where you can request items to be delivered from other colleges and universities in Illinois. To make those requests, and to read e-books and articles online, you’ll need to click on My Library Account on the library homepage. This should prompt you to sign in immediately.
Alternately, if you are already inside the library catalog, click the Sign In link in the upper right-hand corner and then sign in. Use your normal Bradley username/password to log in.
Tada! Now when you search for items on your topic, you’ll be able to read e-books and request books easily. You can also see the status of checked out items and renew if you need to.
The library provides access to millions of articles from scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and other publications. These articles are available through many different databases. There are several different ways to get into the databases from the library homepage: the Articles search option, the Databases A-Z list, and the Site Index. There are also links to databases within many course guides created by librarians.
The Articles tab on the homepage will let you search for articles using keywords. There will be a sign-in link in the upper right-hand corner, or it will ask you to log in when you click on a link to an individual article.
The Databases tab will let you search for a database by name or choose one from an alphabetized list. It will not let you search inside the databases. You will be asked to log in once you click a link to get to a specific database.
If you aren't asked to log in, or are ever asked to pay for an article, contact the Online Learning Librarian.
Google Scholar is a specialized search function of Google that lets you search just for scholarly/academic articles and books. It is useful for exploring the literature on your topic, but it cannot provide full text for articles that require a subscription. You will get the most value out of Google Scholar if you configure your Google account to communicate with Bradley library databases. This will enable full text results from our databases to show up in your Google Scholar results, so you can access them more easily. It also makes ILL requests more streamlined. Instructions to set up your Google Scholar account are below.
The Cullom-Davis Library offers a multitude of resources to support Bradley students. Though this multitude may seem overwhelming, it can be broadly organized into two categories:
Resources for use when doing your coursework
Assistance from librarians in finding, accessing, and using those resources
The library’s web page is your first step to accessing everything that the library has. There are a lot of links on this page - don’t be intimidated! There are really only a few things you need to understand to get started. You can figure the rest out as you go - here is the basic info you need to begin getting the most out of the library.
The current library hours are listed in a box on the left-hand side of the page. This includes hours for the building as well as services like Research Help. Any upcoming closures should be noted in this box. Future hours (like for upcoming semester or breaks in between) can be found on the full hours page.
Research Help hours are the hours during which librarians are available to talk with you directly and most quickly, over the phone or over email. If you have questions outside of these hours, you can still email a librarian, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
On the library homepage, there are multiple icons that will take you to options for getting help from a librarian. The email and chat button will allow you to contact a librarian directly.
The “Research Help” link under Services and the “Ask a Librarian” button both lead to the same page - one where you can find see a listing of Liaison Librarians by Subject. This can show you which librarian works most closely with classes in your area. You can contact that librarian directly with your question if you'd like!
The search box options at the top of the library homepage are meant to help you quickly connect to library resources such as books, article databases, and journals.
The Books+ search box allows you to search for books, ebooks, streaming video, and other items owned by the library. The links below the box let you go directly to the catalog so you can use more search features.
The Articles search box will search a selection of our databases to bring back articles and book chapters on your topic. It does not search all of our databases, or find all of our articles, but it is a useful tool and a good starting point.
This will let you search for a database by name. If you're not sure which database you need, you can also go to the Article Databases link under Find, Borrow, Request.
This will let you search by title for journals owned by the library, including ones that are available online.
The Google Scholar search box will search Google Scholar for scholarly articles containing your keywords. Google Scholar can be configured to show you when an article is available through a library database.
These resources are also accessible under the Find, Borrow, Request menu on the homepage. The links on this menu will take you directly to pages where you can use more search features to find what you need.
Also featured on the Library homepage are icons that lead you to FAQS and Research Guides. FAQs can help answer questions about library policies and “how to” information about our resources. Research Guides are online guides that librarians have put together to help you figure out which resources are most likely to be helpful for you based on the class or program that you are working in. You can access these from anywhere at any time.
There may be a class guide for your specific class (for example, COM 103), based on a specific assignment, or there may be a general guide for your department (for example, Communication) that can give you general guidance.
The contact information for your department's librarian should be on the front page of every guide, so that if you find yourself with further questions, you can easily contact them.
There may be a class guide for your specific class (for example, COM 103), based on a specific assignment, or there may be a general guide for your department (for example, Communication) that can give you general guidance.
The contact information for your department's librarian should be on the front page of every guide, so that if you find yourself with further questions, you can easily contact them.