Finding Resources for Students of the English Language Institute

The University of Florida Libraries offers millions of books, documents, media resources and other formats of material for research and leisure. We also provide access to hundreds of databases researchers can use to explore articles in such publications as journals, magazines, newspapers, books.

Finding Basic Reference Materials

Librarians understand that not everyone wants to visit the library to obtain information to answer their basic reference questions, such as:

1. What newspapers are in Gainesville,
2. How to cite documents used for a paper, or
3. What is the capital of Ghana.

Researchers may visit Google or other web search instead. However, searching these may not be effective or quickly lead to the answer. Librarians therefore have pulled together openly available and free websites that provide credible and good information on the Internet Reference Sources page to help guide researchers.

Finding and Using the TOEFL

The Education Library provides access to the Testing & Education Reference Center (Gale). You can study and practice the TOEFL and other standardized tests in electronic book format with this database. Because the libraries pay for access to this database, while you are in the ELI program, you can only use it from a library or campus computer.

Finding Library Books/Videos

Looking for something to read? Using the Library Catalog you can locate books, electronic books, multimedia, reports and other materials held by the Education Library and other UF Libraries across campus.

The UF Libraries hold a children's literature collection! Children's literature resources can be found at the Education Library, Mead Library and the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Special Collections Library.

In addition, Library West offers a variety of videos including feature films in English and other languages and documentaries.

Finding Articles

Database selection is an important step in the research process. Please note that:

• Databases are either multidisciplinary or subject oriented.
• Databases have varying coverage of publication types (including journals, magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, reviews, reports and book articles).
• Databases have varying coverage dates.
• Many databases contain full text content which enables the researcher to view the full article online.
• Because the libraries pay for access to these databases, while you are in the ELI program, you can only use these resources from a library or campus computer.
• You can begin your research using Academic Search Premier.
• Ask a Librarian or other library staff for assistance using these resources.