The Library homepage provides access to essential resources for your study and research. The Library Links tab gives access to individual Databases, eBook Databases, Video & Multimedia resources, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias, News & Media and Standards. The Library Guides tab leads you to APA Referencing, Te Ao Māori and the Subject & Study Guides. The Research tab takes you to the Copyright and Research guides and the Whitireia & WelTec MIT and MPP theses collections.
The search field enables you to search for Library resources by title or keywords. There is a drop down menu with a list of filters.
Co-Creating and Co-producing Research Evidence by 
Critical Thinking Skills for Healthcare by 
Decolonizing Methodologies by 
Doing a Literature Review in Nursing, Health and Social Care by 
Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World by 
Doing Research in the Real World by 
The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project by 
How to Do Primary Care Educational Research by 
How to Perform a Systematic Literature Review by 
Introducing Research and Evidence-Based Practice for Nursing and Healthcare Professionals by 
Introduction to Health Research Methods: A Practical Guide by 
Navigating the Maze of Research by 
Proposal Writing for Clinical Nursing and DNP Projects by 
Qualitative Research and Intercultural Understanding by 
Qualitative Research in Health Care by 
Reading, Understanding, and Applying Nursing Research by 
Research Methods for Education and the Social Disciplines in Aotearoa New Zealand by 
Understanding Research for Nursing Students by Planning
Before you start, plan your search. Think about the search strategies and techniques you can use, what type of resources you need (books, journal articles) and where to find them.
Search strategies and techniques
Keywords
These words give you the key to information. Use keywords rather than sentences when searching library databases.
e.g. nursing leadership Zealand
Not: Describe nursing leadership in a New Zealand context
Always brainstorm keywords before you start searching. To get some ideas:
Think of the three Ws to help you get the information you need:
The first search is not always your best search
Be prepared to modify your search and use different keywords or combinations of keywords until you are happy with the results. Start with broad terms or concepts, e.g. Nursing and then if necessary, refine your search using more specific terms e.g. palliative care.
Phrase searching
Use quotation marks to treat words as a phrase e.g., “cardiac arrest” or “cultural diversity”
Synonyms
Think about words or phrases that mean exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase e.g., nosebleed OR epistaxis
If your results are:
Truncation
If a word has several possible endings, use a truncation symbol (usually an asterisk) so the computer searches on all the words at once. For example, use reflect* to search for: Reflect, reflects, reflecting, reflective
Wild card
If you want to include several possible spellings of a word, then use the wild card symbol (use a question mark to replaces 0 or 1 letter, an asterisk for more than 1 letter) so the computer searches on all versions of the word at once. e.g. Coloni?ation for searching both colonisation and colonization
Boolean operators
These focus your search and are great to use in the Advanced search of databases (NB Use capital letters for these words).
Publication date
Library databases give you the option to select a specific publication date range.
What type of resources?
The type of resources you should be using are academic books, ebooks and scholarly/peer-reviewed journal articles. You could also refer to professional/industry journals, conference papers and proceedings.
Use of websites
Depending on your assignment question, you can use relevant information found on governmental, organisational and tertiary websites such as the Ministry of Health, New Zealand Nursing Organisation (See web resources) and open access repositories of institutions. e.g. reports, policies, evidence-based nursing procedures and theses.
What is scholarly?
Scholarly articles are written by experts or researchers in a particular field. They are aimed at other experts or researchers (including students) in their field. They are usually in depth research, original research or case studies. They use technical language, contain no advertising or non-essential images (only those that support their research i.e. graphs, charts, statistics etc). They have different sections including an abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results and conclusion. They have formal and lengthy references and are usually peer-reviewed.
What is peer-reviewed?
Peer-reviewed or 'refereed is when scholarly work is evaluated by other experts in the field before it is accepted and published in a scholarly journal. This ensures that the required standard of expertise is met.
Where do you find information?
Many courses have required textbooks or recommended reading lists. Look at the Books/eBooks and Databases tabs of this guide for titles on your subject area. Check out the other subject guides. Look at the reference list and bibliographies of books and articles to see what the authors are using in their research.
The Library search field on the Library website enables you to search the Library’s collection. There is a drop down menu with a list of filters:
Databases and eBooks links under the Library Links tab enable you to search specific databases on a topic. Use the Advanced search of different databases to refine your search and apply the searching techniques mentioned in this guide (see above).
Evaluate what you read
It is important to evaluate information especially if its found on the internet. Apply this check list to make sure the information is suitable for academic purposes:
Currency. Timeliness. When was it published?
Relevancy. Usefulness. Does it relate to your topic?
Authority. Source. Who wrote it? What are their qualifications? If using a website, how reliable is it? Look at the domain name (URL). Government: .govt, .gov, .mil; Educational: .edu, .ac, .school; Non-commercial: .org; Commercial: .net, .co, .com
Accuracy. Truthfulness. Where does the information come from? Is it peer-reviewed? Supported by evidence?
Purpose. Why does the information exist? Is it trying to inform, sell, teach, entertain, persuade? Is it objective or biased?
Blakeslee, S. (2004). The CRAAP test. LOEX Quarterly, 31(3), 6-7. https://library.csuchico.edu/sites/default/files/craap-test.pdf
Skim reading
Look at the author, title, and date to see if the item is suitable for your research. With scholarly journal articles, read the abstract, introduction, method, results, conclusion and reference list to get a sense of the content. Take note of the language used, is it readable or too difficult to understand? Is it academic or casual?
Use control F or Apple F when in a PDF or html document to locate a keyword quickly within the document (This may not work on scanned documents).
Evaluate what you write
Have you met the assignment requirements and created a thorough answer? Have you found relevant articles? Do you need to search further?
APA referencing
Make sure you keep a record of all items you quote or paraphrase from and that you have all the elements required for referencing. See the APA Referencing Guide for help (located under the Library Guides tab at the top of the Library website).
In many databases you can save items to a folder, format it into a citation style of your choosing and email the item to yourself. Note: Machine generated references are not always correct so check them against the library guide.
Library Quick Guides
Māori Research
CINAHL Database Subject Headings
A video that shows you how to create an in depth topic search using subject headings in the CINAHL database (Advanced technique).
PICO searching with CINAHL Ultimate database
A flyer on PICO which is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a clinical question to be formulated prior to starting one’s research.
The hardcopy versions of Whitireia /WelTec Masters of Professional Practice theses and Praxis Projects are held at the Porirua Campus Library. They are not for loan. Many are available online. An alphabetical index of these are located in the Whitireia and WelTec Theses Collection.
New Zealand Research on DigitalNZ. This is the new home for theses and research papers migrated from NZ research.org. Here, you will discover and access New Zealand's most comprehensive selection of research papers and related resources. This site include peer-reviewed and other research from universities, polytechnics, and research organisations throughout New Zealand.
Open Access Research in New Zealand
Polytechnics & Technical Institutes
New Zealand Universities
International Theses
Growing Up in New Zealand is this country's largest contemporary longitudinal study of child development, tracking the lives of more than 6,000 Kiwi children to discover what life is like growing up in 21st Century New Zealand. Their findings will influence research, policy and services to improve the well-being of all New Zealand children and their families.
Britannica Academic. Britannica has articles, photographs, illustrations, sound files and videos on a wide variety of subjects. It also provides access to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus.
Illustrated Māori Dictionary by Te reo hangarau = a Māori language dictionary of technology by 
Oxford English Dictionaries online
New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (click drop down arrow)
Guide to accessing Oxford English Dictionaries
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. A comprehensive guide to our peoples, natural environment, history, culture, economy and society.
