LGBT+ Resources

EIU Databases

Just to get you started- Here are a few top picks for databases to begin your searches!

Recommended Journals

Searching Databases

To begin a search, head to this link for the Library Homepage, you will need to log in to access materials.

You can choose to either do your keyword searches over all library materials to get an idea of what is there, or head to a specific database to get more focused results. Try searching for your topic using several different key phrases. Using different keywords, or changing from "keyword" to subject searches can often bring up different results.

As an example, lets do a keyword search in Academic Search Ultimate.

First lets type in a key word.

Let's also say I need only peer reviewed sources, you can scroll down from this box and make a selection to limit your resources to scholarly sources.

The results page might look something like this:

You can further limit your search options on the sidebar, or narrow your search using "AND", "OR" and "NOT"

These can be a little confusing but here's some examples!

• asexuality AND gender = results would only show you articles that contain both those terms at the same time
• transgender OR  non-binary = results would show articles that contain either of those terms
• lesbian NOT gay = results would only show you articles that contain the first term on its own and without the second term

Search Strategies

Most databases use Library of Congress headings to organize material by subject. When you complete a search you might notice that the entry for your article has a lot of "Topics" or "Subjects"

These are actually all Library of Congress subject headings, and because they are standardized, they collect works of like subject. You can click on any one of these topics to find more within our collection like it. For instance clicking on "bisexuals" would bring up everything in the catalog with that heading.

Here are some example subject headings.

Each link will go to a list of materials in the library collection with that heading assigned to it

There are many more! It is worth noting that because these are standardized terms, they may not reflect the most common or correct term, especially in regards to transgender individuals. Many older works may use the heading "transsexual", or "sex change" alone, and not the new standards of Transgender and Gender-affirming surgery which many newer works would have.