If you are a student or faculty member at Brandon University, you can access databases from off campus.
If you are accessing the library's web site from off campus, most links on the library's web site will first take you to the Proxy Authentication Page, where you can log in with your Brandon University username and password. Once you have logged in, you will be taken to the destination of the link. You should only have to log in once per session.
To log in, you will need your Brandon University username and password - the same username and password you use to log into the Brandon University network when you're on campus. If you have not claimed your username and password or you are having trouble logging in with those, you should contact the Brandon University Help Desk (Phone 571-8500 Monday -Friday 8:30AM to 4:30PM).
For more information, see the Off-Campus Access Page
A journal is like a magazine except that the articles in it are written by researchers and have been checked by other scholars in a process called peer review. Journal articles are where important new research is found.
Information about journal articles can be found in databases or via the library catalog. The library provides access to many databases. Some databases have the full text of articles right in them (like EBSCOhost's Academic Search Premier or JSTOR) and some databases just have descriptions of the articles and links to the full text (like Philosopher's Index). The complete list of databases available can be found by clicking the Philosophy Databases Tab above.
I recommend starting with the Philosopher's Index because it provides the broadest coverage of journal articles - as well as essays / chapters (in books /monographs) - in the field of Philosophy. When you do this search, the database will tell you what book or journal your article /essay is in.
As Philosophy is a field that deals with issues impacting many other fields of study, do not be surprised if you find even more information in other subject databases - depending upon whether the topic has Religious, Medical, Environmental or Social (etc) implications. So also check out the other databases recommended in the Philosophy Databases section of this guide.
You could search Google Scholar but you need to beware as it has spotty coverage of Philosophy journal articles compared to the library's databases. Some of its articles will be available on the open web, but most will not.
Also be aware that even when an article is not in our library or the open web, it is possible to get it via a free service the library provides known as Inter-Library Loans. We will need to get it from another library, so you will need to put your request in a week or two before you need it.
If you want to know more about which database to search, we have an audio-visual tutorial for you.
After searching a Database, you may need to learn if an article/essay/chapter cited is in the library.
To learn if the library owns the journal and article is in, look for the title of the journal in our Journal Titles List.
To find out if the library owns the book an essay/chapter is in, search the title of the book in the Library Catalog.
If a journal or book is not in our collection, you can still get it via Inter-Library Loans.
Interlibrary loans (ILL) provides access to journal articles, books and other itemsunavailable through the library. The service is available to all students, staff and faculty, is usually free and can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the library supplying us.
ILLs can be submitted to us via various Databases, as well as via our Online Forms (for information on how this is done see our ILL Flash Tutorial.). In either case, you will need to use your Brandon University ILL account to do so.
For more information, see the Interlibrary Loan page.