Academic progress

Within research one needs to hone finding & retrieval skills more than any gun dog ever will. Tenacity, determinedness - in fact, doggedness, if you will, is the essential ingredient. If your quarry/query means that much to you, then don't stop until you find the source, citation or pdf copy that you desire.

Recently my searches have been for jobs, conferences and calls for papers. There is a handy search tool at the bottom of this blog that lets you find conferences. Other helpful sites are:
Academic conferences worldwide - Conference Alerts
All Conferences . Com - Conventions - Trade Shows - Convention Centers - Meetings
Call for Papers - Largest listing of call for papers in all areas of specialization 

Scouring for jobs that seem to value a degree, or heaven forfend, a PhD is tricky but these sites make it easier:
PhD Comics Job Resource, Powered by AfterCollege
Academic360.com: #1 Internet Resource for Jobs in Higher Education
Job Search - jobs.ac.uk
Jstor
ScienceDirect
SpringerLink
Elsevier

If the search is for articles, etc. then GoogleScholar is a dream - find the article/book, then click on the versions that are available - chances are that they'll have a working link. Otherwise, try the authors own webpage - they sometimes post them there.

I find that searching the various outlets is helpful. Questia is sometimes good, but the big boys are:
Emerald Insight
IngentaConnect
Sage
Informaworld
WileyInterScience

There may be copies of the journals/articles on multiple catalogues, but only some of them provide free access - you need to find which ones!