Research Tools

The Research Tools section of the Yale University Library Web site is the primary gateway to all of the library's electronic resources, as well as information about the rich print and manuscript collections.


Quicksearch Quicksearch combines the Orbis and Morris catalogs and searches Articles+ all in one convenient fast search.
Search Library Catalog (Orbis) The main system to use to search records for approximately 13 million volumes located across the Yale University Library system. Search for metadata such as book titles and authors; you cannot use Orbis to search full text or chapter titles.
Search Law Library Catalog (MORRIS) Records for items located in Yale's Lillian Goldman Law Library in memory of Sol Goldman. The extensive law collection is not represented in Orbis.
Search Borrow Direct Yale patrons can use Borrow Direct to check the availability of and request books from the combined catalogs of Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, University of Chicago, and MIT within four business days. It can be used to obtain items that are unavailable for checkout at Yale, not held by the Yale library, or on course reserve.
Search WorldCat Includes more than 50 million records for books and other materials held in thousands of academic, public, special and national libraries around the world.
Search Articles+ Articles+ provides a quick, easy and comprehensive search of thousands of journal articles; full-text searchable.
Search Digital Collections Digital image and text collections from the Yale University Library.
Search Google Scholar Provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.
Search Finding Aid Database Finding aids describe archival and manuscript collections at Arts, Beinecke, Divinity, and Music libraries, and the Manuscripts and Archives department in Sterling.
Research Guides Use these research guides to get started in your research, formulate a research strategy for a topic, and find information about print and electronic resources.
Find Databases by Title Find subject-specific databases by title. Direct links to subscribed and freely available research databases and other resources, such as encyclopedias, bibliographies and dictionaries. Some databases are also "cross-searchable"; that is, they may be searched at one time in combination with other databases.
Find eJournals by Title Browse or search for the titles of online journals and newspapers to which the library subscribes or has access to free on the Web.
Overdrive Audio Books & eBooks Yale patrons my download popular fiction and non-fiction eBooks and audiobooks in a variety of formats.
Primary Sources A guide to primary sources at Yale. Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic, created by witnesses who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later.
Last modified: 
Thursday, October 26, 2017 - 7:44am