Welcome!
Welcome to the FWS Portal, your personal entry point to the resources of the BC Libraries.
To the right above are links to helpful research guides designed by BC Libraries' reference staff.
Below that are links to useful search interfaces for a variety of source materials.
Click on the "FWS Guides" tab to find a guide adapted to your course. If there is no guide listed for your course, use the "Step by Step" guide listed on this page, or feel free to browse other course-specific guides.
Bookmark this page in your browser, and use it as an entry point until you become more familiar with the structure of the library website.
For Instructors
Library Instruction Sessions can now be scheduled online through LibCal. Please note, there are different links for FWS instruction sessions and all other instruction sessions.
Though we prefer 2 weeks’ advance notice, we will do our best to accommodate shorter notice when possible. We encourage you to be present during the instruction session so that the students can also benefit from your perspective and input. If this session will be tied to an assignment - something that has proven to be very effective for student learning in this setting - please share it with the Librarian who will be teaching the class. We look forward to working with you!
For more information about the FWS Library Instruction program contact Kwasi Sarkodie-Mensah (kwasi.sarkodie-mensah@bc.edu) or Syed Khan (syed.khan@bc.edu).
Research Guides & Tools
- Step By Step Guide to Doing Research
- How to Search in Holmes
- Field Guide to Periodicals
- Finding Current and Historical Newspapers
- Finding Book Reviews
- Finding Images
- Finding Videos
- Evaluate Internet Resources
- Citation Formatting
- Subject Guides Directory
- Tutoring & Instructional Support
- Contact a Librarian
Key Resources
Click on the 
to learn why to use a resource.
- Holmes Library Catalog Holmes is the online catalog of Boston College Library holdings. It tells you what we own, which library it is in, and how to find it.
- Subject Specific Databases Link to a list of databases accessible to you through the BC Library website. (Though they are expensive, they are free to you; your tuition has paid for access.)
- Academic Onefile A multidisciplinary database with peer reviewed fulltext articles. Coverage includes physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects.
- JSTOR The JSTOR project is an interdisciplinary digital archive of fully searchable back issues of scholarly journals. The most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available.
- Lexis Nexis Academic A full-text database of national and international news sources (including newspapers, industry news, and broadcast transcripts) as well as legal research.
- CQ Researcher Each weekly CQ Researcher publication provides an overview of a single "hot" economic, political or social issue. Each issue includes charts, graphs and sidebar articles, a pro-con feature, a chronology, lengthy bibliographies and a list of contacts.
- Facts on File Facts on File presents the full text of Facts On File World News Digest since 1940, plus a live newsfeed from Reuters® news wire and thousands of in-depth features, images, charts, and primary documents. Additional hyperlinks connect researchers to relevant information from three other databases: Issues & Controversies; Today's Science, and the World Almanac Reference Database, including the World Almanac Encyclopedia.
- Education Research Complete Education research complete is an up-to-date and comprehensive database of research materials covering a broad range of education, including pre-K, K-12, public, private, post-secondary, and international.
- PsycINFO PsycINFO provides access to international scholarly literature in psychology and related disciplines. It indexes more than 8 million cited references in 185,000 journal articles, books, and book chapters.
- Sociological Abstracts Indexes the international scholarly literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Indexed journals number in the thousands.
The BC Libraries |
 BC LibGuides Links: Profile & Guides |
Fresh Ink: Essays from Boston College's First-Year Writing Seminar
Your instructor has likely informed you that there is an avenue for publishing your writing in FWS: Fresh Ink. It is an annual publication, in print from 1998 to 2010, and electronic since then.
Check out the remarkable range of subjects in the most recent edition, for inspiration in in your own writing - from an analysis of stereotyping of women in advertisements, to a researched report on Singapore's rise to power, to a narrative about growing up Hispanic without Spanish.
Get Help
- Ask the FAQ
Quick answers to common questions. - Email a Librarian
- Text a Librarian
Quick questions for reference desk librarians. - Ask-a-Librarian 24/7
Chat reference help, all hours. - Call a Librarian
617-552-4472: O'Neill reference desk. - Consult in Person
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