2. In this workshop we will look at...
• How to find information
• Developing an effective search strategy
• Resources available and how to use them
• Evaluating information for quality and relevance
9. Journal Databases
myUniHub > My Study > My Library > Databases
Choose subjects for
a list of relevant
journal databases
10. Summon and journal databases provide:
• Access to quality information
• Information not available elsewhere
• Up-to-date
• Focussed/specific
• Full-text access
• Access on/off campus
• Personalize
• Citation and journal impact info
11. Citation searching
• Which articles have cited an earlier article
• Find articles on similar/related subject
• How many times an article has been cited
• Best journals in your field
13. Get online help using resources
MyUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Library Subject Guides > Computing
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/EIS
14. It’s not in the Library!
• Inter Library Loans http://bit.ly/InterLibraryLoans
• Sconul Access http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/sconul-access
• Other libraries http://bit.ly/visitingotherlibraries
16. Evaluating information
Imagine you are writing an essay on ‘Network Security’.
Have a look at the 4 items that you have been given and
consider the following:
• Which items are the most relevant to your essay?
• Which items would be no use?
• Which item has the most academic authority?
• Which items might have bias?
• Which item is the most current?
19. Keeping in touch
• Librarian Blog http://satlibrarian.blogspot.com
• Librarian Twitter http://twitter.com/SATlibrarian
• Library Facebook Middlesex University Library
• Library Twitter http://twitter.com/MDXLibrary
20. Need further help?
Your Librarian is:
Vanessa Hill v.hill@mdx.ac.uk
http://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/support/unihelp/
Notes de l'éditeur
Welcome and intros.
How to find information for your projectsHow to develop an effective search strategy when you need to find information for an essay or projectThe range of resources available and how to use them to find good quality and relevant informationEvaluating information for quality and relevanceManaging referencesResearch from Uni of Huddersfield shows that correlation between library usage and good grades.
Hands on exercise: Sources game.
Magazine (A regular publication aimed at a profession, business or interest....trade/popular)Good:Latest news: events, jobs, products etc, concise info, easy to obtainBad: lacks detail, can be bias, old issues hard to come byStandards (An agreed, often legally binding level of quality or way of doing something....regional, Nat, Internat, profession/sector) Good: Created by experts, confidenceCompany/market research report (Well researched overview of a company or product market. Could contain future trends, financial data, competitors and SWOT analysis)Good: Up-to-date: latest research/data,Insider information: information not freely available elsewhere, objective, accurateBad: Hard to locateWebpageGood: All subjects covered,easy to use,mobileBad: accuracy, no editorial control, anyone can add information, provenanceNewspapersGood: Daily information ie. up-to-date, edited, current issues accessibleBad: Sensationalist, biased (unbalanced), harder to get back issuesConference proceedings (Collofaca papers distributed after a conference, cont the contributions made by researchers, academics etc)Good:Up-to-date: latest research, ideas, thinking on a subject, focussed/specialist, stringent quality controlBad: Too specificJournalsGood: Up-to-date,Focussed: specialist subject areas, qualityBad: Too specificBooksGood: overview,background knowledge, edited/qualityBad:Currency, detailed/specific information
More information about the range of resources available on the Library Subject Guide.
Group discussion:What can you see in the picture…fruitIf type ‘fruit’ into database will get millions of hits, how can you break it down ie. search for something more specific to get more manageable resultsCan you be more specific ie. Type of fruit: apples, oranges, bananas etcLocation: Stall, market, outdoor market, fruit market, BritainDetail: boxes, signs, astroturf, prices, colour of fruit, lights, pound £ signs, special offer etcPeople in background: old, young, male, female > stall holder, customers, browsers etcThink of related subjects eg. retail, commercial, financial, point-of-saleShopping, shops, fish/meat/clothes market, shopping centres, high streetTown, city, centre, British townNutrition: vits and minsAlso: Orange or Blackberry: fruit NOT telephoneApple: fruit NOT computerThinking beyond the obvious, looking for the detail that might make a difference.
Need to carry out a literature search:Finding the information available on a subjectFinding information to inform, underpin and shape your researchFinding what has already been written on a subjectAnalyzing, evaluating and making judgements about the info foundIdentifying the main trendsFinding appropriate information: the information needs to be suitable for your needie. right level, current if important, sufficient breadth or detail etc
Show the students how to refine their search using:FTContent typeSubject termsPublication dateLanguage etcHave another go.
Students can also search individual databases.Select ‘Computing science’ for a list of subject specific resources.
CS £1397 IEEE Xplore £61,000 Summon £16kAccess to quality academic information eg. Peer reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings , research etcInformation not available elsewhereUp-to-dateFocussed/specific....not designed to sell you things, search results not sponsoredFull-text accessAccess on/off campusPersonalizeeg. In MyEBSCO, once signerd up you can:Save preferencesOrganise research within foldersShare foldersSave search historyCreate email alerts/Rss feeds for searches and subjectsCan provide citation and journal impact info > more info on next slide
Which articles have cited an earlier articleie. Way of looking forward in the literature-if have found excellent article, can use a citation index to see which articles have subsequently cited it Find articles on similar/related subjects: Citation implies subject relationship, so can find papers on a similar topic without using any keywords or subject termsFind out how many times a paper has been cited ie. gauge the usefulness/quality. esteem of a paperDetermine which are the best journals in your field: citation data used to rank journals within particular subject areas…..useful way of seeing how journals perform in relation to others in the same subject area
Citation data and journal citation reports available from Web of Knowledge
Lots of useful online guides eg.How to find booksHow to find information for your projectAccessing journal databases etc
Inter Library Loan service: request copies of books and journals not held by MDX. £3 charge. Register as DL first. More info on our website.SCONUL Access http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/The SCONUL Access Scheme provides reciprocal access and borrowing rights for staff and students to approximately 170 member institutions in the UK. Apply online.Other libraries (specialist, catalogues etc):British Library http://www.bl.uk/COPAChttp://copac.ac.uk/COPAC is a union catalogue that gives access to the merged online catalogues of members of the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL). Twenty major university libraries currently contribute to COPAC.Search25 http://www.search25.ac.uk/:helps you discover library resources across London and the South East. You can also see where the libraries are and find out how to visit them.SUNCAThttp://www.suncat.ac.uk/SUNCAT, a union catalogue of serials (periodicals) for the UK, is a tool for locating serials held in UK libraries.
How do you decide if the information is any good? Especially important with the Internet.What do you think about this quote?
Divide class into groupHand out worksheet and 4x items.Discuss. No right or wrong answers. All items found by doing a search on Network Security.Which items are most relevant:Academic journal and Wiki most relevant. Newspaper article is sensationalist and trade journal is a review of software.Which items would be no use:Newspaper article useless, and trade journal probably not unless needed to know about software packages.Which item has the most academic authority:Academic journal. It has biography of authors, references, in-text citations and uses academic language. Article has been peer reviewed.Wikipedia has refs, but don’t know who has added information. Are any of the items bias:NewspaperTrade journal is reviewing software and may be swayed by advertisers.Which item is the most current:WikipediaAcademic journal is very out-of-date 2004Would not use any of them and would continue search. Discuss the importance of evaluating the information that you find.
Take feedback and discuss.Authority : Who is the author? What is their knowledge base/qualifications? How have they carried out their research? Relevance : Is this what I need? Will it answer my question? Is it at the right level?Intent : What is the purpose of information e.g. financial gain, propaganda, academic etc?Objectivity : Balanced view? Opposing views represented? Links to supporting information?Currency: How old is this information? When was it last updated and by whom?
ZetocBL current awareness service - provides access to the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents of around 20.000 current journals and around 16,000 conference proceedings published every yearThe database covers from 1993 to the present, and is updated on a daily basis. It includes current awareness services, so that subscribers can receive notification of relevant new material either from particular journals, authors or on particular subjects (keywords)CituLikeHeadline articles from recent publicationsSome journals publish an electronic table of contents for the most recent issueBrowse all the recent articles in these journals just as if they were on your bookshelf Currently 13507 journals onlineTicTocSearch for 1000s of journal table of contents (TOCs) RSSfeeds by title, subject or publisher, export citations or link to full text, and then save TOCs in your ticTOCs account Also things like Google Alerts and Google Blog SearchRefWorks is online software that helps you collect, store and organise the references you use in your work. It makes producing a reference list or bibliography quick and easy. It is web-based, so you can access your references from anywhere, and you will never loose them if your computer fails.
