Interior Design
Whether you're a new student starting your first assignment, further on in your studies, or starting a research project, this page will help you find and use the best information for your subject. You will also find resources to help develop your academic, study and digital skills.
If you can’t find what you need here, please contact your Academic Support Team: library-SAM@salford.ac.uk
Key resources for Interior Design students
Books & Journals
The first place you should look is your reading list – you will find a link to this in your Blackboard modules. It lists all the core texts for your subject as recommended by your lecturers. All our other books and journals can be found in Library Search
Databases
Whilst Library Search is your starting point when researching a topic, sometimes it’s helpful to restrict your search to one of our specialist sources.
- Architects Journal - The University pays for student access so go to it via Library Search. You will be asked to register the first time you use this.
- DETAIL inspiration - Images and information from an important architectual journal. As the name implies – great for inspiration.
- LS:N Global - A resource for information about market and consumer trends – excellent for information on design trends.
- Art & Architecture Archive - An archive of art and architecture magazines from the late 19th Century to the 21st Century (2009) Each magazine is scanned cover to cover and presented as full colour page images. Excellent for historical context and examples.
- GreenFILE - Information on human impacts on the environment. Covers all sorts of topics including areas linked to interior design such as architecture and building.
- Arts & Humanities Full Text - This is an interdisciplinary source covering the arts and humanities, so the subjects covered are very wide-ranging, and it includes some foreign language material. However, it is worth checking for most design topics.
- WGSN - This is very fashion oriented, but useful for design resources and some more generic trend ideas
- JSTOR - An archive of scholarly journal articles and book chapters covering the arts and sciences – a valuable source worth checking for almost any topic.
- Mintel – a market research source, so sometimes useful for information about lifestyle and consumer trends.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning offers thousands of professionally produced online courses covering technical, creative and professional skills and including lots on film making.
Always use our institutional login to log in – you will need your University email address and password.
The first time you log in, you will be taken through a setup process to discover courses tailored to your interests.
Find out more in our video: Using LinkedIn Learning at Salford.
Newspapers
Sources to try include Gale OneFile News, Newsstream and LexisLibrary. Check our Newspapers web page to see which papers we have access to.
Browse your Reading Lists
Your tutors select books, articles, videos and other resources for your reading lists and the Library buys them so you don't have to.
Find the lists for your modules in Blackboard, or in Library Search.
Referencing
APA 7th (Harvard) style is the main referencing style in use at the University. We've compiled an easy to follow list of guidebooks and examples to help you get to grips with complexities of referencing.
Newspapers
Newspapers are a valuable source of information. They provide insight into what interests and concerns people both now and in the past.
The Library provides some excellent newspaper sources that allow you to search simply and easily across many newspapers at once.
Dissertations and Theses
During the course of your studies, you may find that you need to search for dissertations or theses.
You can use Library Search to help you find them and there are a number of different ways to search, depending on what you want to find.
New Interior Design Students
Book a one to one
If you’ve tried our eLearning and classroom sessions and need more help, you can request a one to one appointment for information finding, academic and writing or digital skills. Select your chosen time slot and book on through Advantage.
Book on a workshop
We offer a wide range of face-to-face skills training. If you need to improve your IT skills, learn how to find information for your assignments or improve your study skills this is a great place to start.
All workshops are bookable through Advantage by clicking on the workshop title. Where a session has no remaining spaces you can add yourself to the waiting list.
Preparing for Reassessment
Starts: 20 Jun 2023, 12:00 pmFinishes: 20 Jun 2023, 1:00 pmRemaining places: 46This workshop will provide help, support, and guidance for students undertaking reassessment.Returning to Learning [ONLINE]
Starts: 20 Jun 2023, 1:00 pmFinishes: 20 Jun 2023, 2:00 pmRemaining places: 28For students who have been out of education for some timeA Short Introduction to Critical and Analytical Skills [ONLINE]
Starts: 20 Jun 2023, 5:00 pmFinishes: 20 Jun 2023, 6:00 pmRemaining places: 23This session is aimed at undergraduate and master's level students who wish to improve their critical thinking, reading and writing skills.
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Exam session [Online]
Starts: 8 Jun 2023, 11:00 amFinishes: 8 Jun 2023, 12:00 pmVenue: MOS Exam - Certiport exam providerRemaining places: 14This is an online EXAM SESSION for MOS certification. At the time of booking you must have scored over 70% in GMetrix's 'Testing' mode for your chosen application. Bookings not meeting this criteria will be cancelled.Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Exam session [Online]
Starts: 14 Jun 2023, 5:00 pmFinishes: 14 Jun 2023, 6:00 pmVenue: MOS Exam - Certiport exam providerRemaining places: 15This is an online EXAM SESSION for MOS certification. At the time of booking you must have scored over 70% in GMetrix's 'Testing' mode for your chosen application. Bookings not meeting this criteria will be cancelled.Digital Notemaking [online]
Starts: 12 Jul 2023, 1:00 pmFinishes: 12 Jul 2023, 2:15 pmRemaining places: 35This workshop introduces some free digital tools for improving your notemaking and explores some little known features of software we all have access to. It is aimed at anyone who wants to get more organised for studying.
Preparing for Reassessment
Starts: 20 Jun 2023, 12:00 pmFinishes: 20 Jun 2023, 1:00 pmRemaining places: 46This workshop will provide help, support, and guidance for students undertaking reassessment.Finding information using Library Search [online]
Starts: 29 Jun 2023, 2:00 pmFinishes: 29 Jun 2023, 3:00 pmRemaining places: 35This online workshop is a live demo of how Library Search works and showcases what it can do to help you find good quality academic information at Salford.Preparing for Reassessment
Starts: 12 Jul 2023, 12:00 pmFinishes: 12 Jul 2023, 1:00 pmRemaining places: 49This workshop will provide help, support, and guidance for students undertaking reassessment.