Locating Materials
Using the Indiana University Libraries Website
There are multiple search options on the IU Libraries website. Let's start by exploring the homepage:
- Bento Box Search: this search will pull together results from the following sources: Libraries' website, IUCAT, Database Titles, Research Guides, OneSearch@IU, and Journals.
- This is a good option for broader topics because it will direct you to databases, journals, research guides, and IU librarians who specialize in your topic. Here is an image of the Bento Box search bar:
- IUCAT Search: Click on "IUCAT" on the top right corner of the homepage to access the IU Library Catalog.
- Featured Databases: At the bottom of the homepage, there is a selection of commonly used databases:
- The Finding Tab is located at the top of the home page and will direct you to a variety of resources for your project:
- Research Guides by Subject: Explore general topics and featured guides curated by IU librarians. Some classes have their own research guides.
- Databases A-Z: Explore databases by name or keyword(s).
- Subject Specialists: Reach our to a subject librarian with specialist areas of expertise.
The IU Libraries website can direct you to books and articles articles on IUCAT, OneSearch@IU, EBSCO, Google Scholar, and more. See the next section for help determining which of these resources is right for you.
Below are resources that include articles related to human sexuality and health.
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MEDLINE (PubMed) This link opens in a new windowIndex to articles covering all aspects of medicine. Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
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Global Health This link opens in a new windowPublic health research and practice containing information from journals, reports, books and conferences from 1973 - present.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary index that provides citations for high impact journals. Useful for forward citation searching. (Does not support Internet Explorer as a browser)
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GenderWatch (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowAcademic, grey, and popular literature supporting research in LGBTQ studies; family studies; gender and women's studies; 1970-present.
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Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowIndex of the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
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CINAHL Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowCINAHL Plus with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive source of full text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 750 journals indexed in CINAHL. This authoritative file contains full text for many of the most used journals in the CINAHL index. Includes selected pamphlets and audiovisual materials.
A-Z Databases
Use the IU Libraries A–Z Databases list to explore the many research materials available to you. Apply filters by subject or type and browse helpful descriptions to guide your search.
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Academic Search (EBSCO)
Provides full-text coverage of magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles for most academic disciplines.
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Archives of Sexuality and Gender
Provides access to materials exploring important aspects of LGBTQ life. Includes periodicals, newsletters, manuscripts, government records, organizational papers, correspondence, an international selection of posters, and other primary source materials.
Access to module 6: Community and Identity in North America available through June 12, 2026 via the Gale Accelerate Program, an evidence based acquisition model.
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Contemporary Women's Issues (Gale OneFile)
A multidisciplinary, full-text database of articles about issues that influence women's lives around the world.
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Gender: Identity and Social Change
Primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. Includes sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.
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LGBTQ+ Library Catalog
The LGBTQ+ Library Catalog contains materials pertaining to asexual, bisexual, gay, intersex, lesbian, transgender, and queer issues. These resources include books, videos, CDs, and periodicals. This collection is intended to be a resource for both research and entertainment.
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Psychology Database
Access to abstracts and indexing for key psychology titles, many which are available in full text. Coverage ranges from behavioral, clinical, cognitive, developmental, experimental, industrial and social psychology, along with personality, psychobiology and psychometrics.
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Sex & Sexuality
Explores changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century. Produced in collaboration with the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections, the resource includes the work of leading American sexologists, sex researchers, and organizations.
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All in Her Head
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ISBN: 9780063293021Publication Date: 2024-02-13"For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on, as do the pervasive societal stigmas and ignorance that shape women's health and relationships with their own bodies. The author draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies: how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today's medical thought, and the many oversights that remain unaddressed. She examines the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, and her own observations from treating thousands of women." -
Bodies in Doubt
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ISBN: 9781421441849Publication Date: 2021-07-13This renowned history of intersex in America has been comprehensively updated to reflect recent shifts in attitudes, bioethics, and medical and legal practices. In Bodies in Doubt, Elizabeth Reis traces the changing definitions, perceptions, and medical management of intersex (atypical sex development) in America from the colonial period to the present. -
Medicalizing Difference
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ISBN: 9781350374928Publication Date: 2024-11-14Exploring 18th-century medicine's construction of individuals with non-standard sexual anatomy as "hermaphrodites", this book focuses on the genre of the case history from three different languages and national contexts-British, French, and German. Medicalizing Difference examines case studies written about Anne Grandjean, Michel Anne Drouart, Maria Dorothea Derrier, and an unnamed "Angolan hermaphrodite." Multiple case studies were published about each of these individuals and are discussed throughout the book's four chapters, each of which focuses on one momentous epistemological shift in the eighteenth-century: an increasing focus on empiricism and the related professionalization of medicine, the expanding market for popular scientific literature, changing notions about generation and reproduction, and the exploration of foreign territories. This book reads these case histories against the grain and historicizes 18th-century medicine's construction of the category of the "hermaphrodite", demonstrating that, rather than describing a fact, these histories created their subject of study -
Mental Health, Men and Culture
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ISBN: 9789289055130Publication Date: 2020-08-19Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues and are much more likely to commit suicide. This scoping review examined recent evidence published in English and Russian on the role of socially constructed masculinity norms in men's help-seeking behavior for mental health issues. The key sociocultural barriers to men's help-seeking pertaining to masculinity norms were identified as self-reliance, difficulty in expressing emotions, and self-control. The wider community societal and cultural challenges to men's help-seeking and well-being were found to include economic insecurity, inequality, and limited health- and social-care provisions - especially for marginalized groups of men. However, there is also evidence to indicate that men are able to display vulnerability and seek help with trusted people (such as family members, peers, and specialists) and within trusted communities. Policy considerations to improve men's help-seeking for mental health issues should include an awareness of the prevailing cultural norms of masculinity in diverse groups of men to provide effective, tailored interventions for mental health promotion. -
A Quick and Easy Guide to Sex and Disability
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ISBN: 1620106949Publication Date: 2020-06-23A quick, easy, and educational comic book guide that will help change the way we talk about sex and sexuality for all bodies. All different kinds of bods want to connect with other bods, but lots of them get left out of the conversation when it comes to S-E-X. As explained by disabled cartoonist A. Andrews, this easy-to-read guide covers the basics of disability sexuality, common myths about disabled bodies, communication tips, and practical suggestions for having the best sexual experience possible. -
Sex Is a Spectrum
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ISBN: 9780691249414Publication Date: 2025-05-06Why human biology is far more expansive than the simple categories of female and male. Being human entails an astonishingly complex interplay of biology and culture, and while there are important differences between women and men, there is a lot more variation and overlap than we may realize. Sex Is a Spectrum offers a bold new paradigm for understanding the biology of sex, drawing on the latest science to explain why the binary view of the sexes is fundamentally flawed--and why having XX or XY chromosomes isn't as conclusive as some would have us believe -
Voices and Values
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ISBN: 9789385932397Publication Date: 2018-11-15Over the last several years, regular evaluation of development programs has become essential in measuring and understanding their true impact. Feminist and gender-sensitive evaluations have gradually emerged, drawing attention to existing inequities--gender, caste, class, location, and more--and the cumulative effect of these biases on daily life. Such evaluations are also deeply political; they explicitly acknowledge that gender-based inequalities exist, show how they remain embedded in society, and articulate ways to address them. Based on four years of research, Voices and Values offers critical insight into how gender, class, and nationality inflect and affect sociological research.
Google Scholar is a time-saving, scholarly search interface accessible from within the Google interface. With Google Scholar, you can access peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book sections. For literature searching, specialized databases have more functionality and access more comprehensive results, but Google Scholar is a good tool to use for a search for a known item.
Can't find what you're looking for? Luckily Document Delivery Services (DDS) and Inter-Library (ILL) Loan can help!
Articles and books from other non-IU libraries can be borrowed for free. Articles will be digitally sent as PDF files to your email and books are delivered and picked up from Wells Library.
Need to make a request?
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Fill out this form to request an entire work (book, microfilm, microform, entire conference proceedings, music score, dissertation, CD, video)
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Fill out this form to request an article within a larger work (Journal article; Anthology chapter; segment from the proceedings of a conference)
This video walks through completing an InterLibrary Loan request
Are you experiencing technical difficulties with an online resource?
Use the chat feature, which pops up on the page, and a technical support ticket will be issued to resolve the problem!
What Are Primary & Secondary Sources
What are primary sources?
When researchers distinguish between primary and secondary sources, they're usually referring to the status of a particular piece of evidence being used to support an argument. Calling an item a "primary source" does not mean that the perspective presented by it is automatically true or accurate; rather, a "primary source" is an item that is a source of information about an event, institution, or person and that was also part of the very event, institution, or life being studied.
Primary Sources
- Original materials providing direct evidence about an event, institution, or person.
- Created during the time being studied and often for purposes other than research.
- Examples: personal letters, meeting minutes, legal documents, photos, home movies.
- Can include published works depending on the research question (e.g., news articles for media coverage studies).
- Not automatically accurate used as firsthand accounts.
What are secondary sources?
In contrast to primary sources, secondary sources are interpretations that come out of an analysis of patterns and differences that appear in primary sources and their contexts. The author of a secondary source is usually focusing on a topic and intending to communicate with researchers. A secondary source will use primary sources as its foundation and examine those primary sources in order to find meaningful relationships among the different perspectives and understandings found in those primary documents
Secondary Sources
- Interpretations and analyses based on primary sources.
- Aim to identify patterns and relationships among primary sources.
- Written for researchers and rely on primary sources as their foundation.