‛accessing information’ has been developed by vitae © 2009 careers research and advisory centre...

‛Accessing information’ has been developed by Vitae© 2009 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited. Please refer to www.vitae.ac.uk/resourcedisclaimer for full conditions of use.

Accessing information


IntroductionThis session is divided into two sections

Part A will enable you to:

• Understand your entitlement to support

• Know which university services are most likely to be provided

Part B focuses on:

• How you can make best use of your library for research support


• Understand your entitlement to support

• Universities have centrally organised support services

• Make a list of the people and services at your university that might be approached for help by a postgraduate researcher

• Compare your list with others

Sources of help


• Supervisory team – supervisor(s), head of department, director of research, faculty research co-ordinator

• Departmental office and admin team

• Graduate school/research office

• Research training and study skills support

Looking at this list, what do you understand of their roles and when might you contact them?

Typical sources of help (1)


The university is also likely to provide:• Understand your entitlement to support

- Accommodation services - Careers centre - Computing services- Counselling service - Disabilities and mental health support - Employment exchange- Student welfare services- Harassment advice - Medical centre - Religious and spiritual matters

• Student union and welfare and support

Typical sources of help (2)


• As a part-time researcher you are entitled to access these services

TASK:

• Tomorrow, spend some time investigating your university’s website

- What support services do they have?

- If in need contact immediately!

Accessing help


In groups:

• Do any of you have experience of contacting any of the support services?

• What else could be done by them to help you as a part-time researcher?

Activity


• Where you can get help:

- Your subject librarian

- Courses

- One-to-one advice

• Don’t waste time – for specific help make advance appointments

• Order things that you need to view in advance, eg theses

Library


1. Choosing where to search

2. Choosing and combining keywords and other search criteria, eg date

3. Selecting what to read

4. Locating information

5. Avoiding plagiarism

Five key steps to finding information


In pairs:

• Discuss how you currently find research information

• Note any differences and similarities

• Be prepared to give feedback to rest of group

How do you find research information?


• Google - Advanced search - Google scholar

• Databases - Subject, eg EconLit format - Format, eg WOS conference proceedings

• Repositories- Institutional- Subject

Search resources


In groups of five:• Brainstorm how to search Google for…

- what key words would you use?- what search strategies would you use?

• Nominate one/two people to demonstrate to the whole class how to search Google

• Remainder of group: analyse other groups’ search strategies - what worked well/did not work well - why? - what would you do differently for a database?

Activity


Key words

General

Specific

Truncation & boolean logic

Abbreviations?, *

Spelling

Misspelling

Related terms

ATM

Alternative terms

‘AND’, ‘OR’

American


• Consider:

– Content

• Bias

• Accuracy

• Who wrote it

• Where it was published

• Currency

Search resources


• DO NOT just rely on electronic full text• Library catalogue• Inter library loan• Electronic document delivery• Visiting other libraries• Catalogues on web• SCONUL access scheme

Locating the material


• Record complete references– mark records– import into a bibliographic software system

eg:• Refworks• Endnote

• Acknowledge in text • Create a bibliography

Avoid being a plagiarist


• To keep up with the pace of change and prevent information overload (particularly important in science and technology, but also true of other subject areas)

• To identify new developments relevant to your research

• To identify new researchers working in your field of study

• To ensure nobody else has published on your chosen research title or proposed patent!

Reasons to keep up to date


Where to find alerting services?

Databases

Internet

eg publishers pages

E-journal collections

eg Science Direct, Emerald

New books

Journal articles

Journal contents pages

Library catalogue Forthcoming conferences

Specialist information

eg patents, government documents


• Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication= automatic notification of latest changes

• News/latest journal issue/latest blog post

• Need a ‘feed reader’/‘news aggregator’ to read the updated information

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/default.stm

Using RSS


• Paste feed URL into your reader• Examples:

– TechXtrawww.techxtra.ac.uk/news/latest-news.rss

– Intute Internet gateway www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/latest.html

– Library RSS feedswww.lboro.ac.uk/library/resources/RSS.html

– BBC News (Selection of feeds)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/3223484.stm

Tracking feeds


• Be aware of the support which you are entitled to

• Ask for help if it is needed

• Make the best use of your library

• Follow the 5 Key Steps to finding information

• Keep research up-to-date

Summary

‛accessing information’ has been developed by vitae © 2009 careers research and advisory centre...

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