All the cool 3rd year kids use Zetoc.

Well that's plainly not true but I'm trying to sell you something here so just go with it and keep reading if you're currently knee deep in dissertation searching. And this post isn't just for students writing dissertations. If you're coming to the end of Year 2 and want to make life easier for yourselves next year this is definitely for you.

Zetoc is the British Library journal catalogue. What makes it useful is it contains a basic record of pretty much every journal article published anywhere. Ever.
Now that doesn't mean you can suddenly get full-text access to everything-you can't, but it does give you an opportunity to find basic information about articles and if you're a final year student order articles through learning resources. Still reading? Okay.

Zetoc also offers the opportunity for you to create 'email alerts', which means that if new things are published which match keywords of your choice (for example "childhood obesity") Zetoc sends you an email to let you know what's just been newly published. The procedure is reasonably straightforward to set up but if you need help - ask. For those of you who want help I can organise a hands-on workshop and then you can all sit back and wait for the details of new journal articles to come to you. Just remember it won't be full-text.

Still with me? If you're still reading then you're serious about finding the newest and most relevant research on your dissertation and will sweep all before you.

This link here will take you to the login page for Zetoc.

Once you're in Zetoc you'll find instructions on how to set up the email alerts.
This is a fairly simple thing to do (promise!) and it can make finding resources a little easier.

Good luck and contact me if you need help.