BBA- Study Skills Course

BI Norwegian School of Management

Librarian Toril Sigstadstø

22 October 2008

Session outline

Part one:• Do we need a library?• The search process• Selection of sources• Citation and correct use of sources

Part two: Basic search techniques: Exercises• Books (Bibsys)• Articles (Business Source Complete)

Library focus

Facilitate and support: BI’s research BI’s teaching The student’s own learning

BI Library webpage

Resources at your disposal

Physical library Collections Various working places Rooms with audio-visual

equipment Information desks IT-helpdesk

Electronic resources Books Article databases Subject databases

Public information

Library catalogues (Bibsys Ask)

Subject databases (i.e. company information)

Article databases

Dictionaries and encyclopedia

The open internet – Google Scholar

Some of your choices…

Databases – why?The content defined and selected

The time coverage is defined

Search screen with many possibilities to refine your search

The content is available

Reliable

Predictable

Facilitates searches for relevant literature

Time saved!

Brad Pitt in ”Snatch”, 2000

Nicolas Cage in ”National treasure”, 2004

Producer: Pepsi

Product placement in films

Product placement in films

History

Book, article, the internet

Regulations

Lovdata

Statistics

SSB, governmental bodies

Products

Newspaper articles

Examples

The internet, articles

Company / industry information

Amadeus, Factiva

Refine the research topic?

• Particular brand or type of product? Ethical aspects?

Company info.

• Norway / international?

Regulations

• Target group?

Definition

Books, Encyclopedia in marketing, articles

Searching for literature – where?Books: Bibsys: References to books, research reports,

doctoral dissertations, student works, series etc Ebrary: Elektronic books in fulltext

Journal articles:-International: Business Source Complete

ISI Web of Science

Newspaper articles: -International: Factiva-Norwegian: Atekst

Company informationNorwegian:

Proff Forvalt (only in Norwegian)International

Amadeus (European) Factiva (international) Kompass (international) Datastream (international)

Company homepage

Newspaper archives (Factiva & Atekst (Norwegian)

Business Source Complete

Oslo Stock Exchange – annual reports

Research reports, student papers

Searching Techniques Meaningful search terms Translate your ”research question” into search terms

0 results? Truncate: write an * at the end of the search term.

Ex: strateg* returns hits on strategic strategy, strategies… and even in Norwegian!

Search for synonymes. Ex: company – firm – organization Check the spelling, name, language etc

Too many results? Combine two or more words or expressions Limit the search to a field ( f ex author, title, subject,

abstract) Limit to time period, document type, peer reviewed

Look for: Author or publisher Date Motivation – why? Links out – verify the content and

facts

VIKO- Your guide to information literacy

Source evaluation - webpages

Published by whom? (Publisher)

Published where? (peer reviewed journal?)

Date of publishing (new - outdated?) Data collection – which method? Is there a reference list – what are

the sources? Read the abstract, check the

keywords Is the author an authority within the

field?

Source evaluation- journal articles

Citing sources

Why?

To let the reader know what the student’s own contributions are and what is taken from others

To permit the reader to find the item cited

To acknowledge the contributions of the original authors

To let the student share his knowledge about the subject and what is written about it.

Avoid plagiarism

Citing sources Plagiarism is when a student:”presents any information, ideas or

phrasing of another as if they were his/her own and/or does not give appropriate credit to the original source”

From Duke university libraries: “Citing sources and avoiding

plagiarism”. 2007.

Citing sources - How?

Reference in the text (citation)

Reference list at the end of the paper (integrated part of the paper)

Citing sources - examples

Direct quotation in the text:…Michael Porter (1985, 3) states however, that

”value is what customers are willing to pay”

OR:

….Another perspective of this is ”value is what customers are willing to pay (Porter 1985, 3)

The reference list:Porter, Michael. 1985. Competitive advantage:

Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free Press.

Citing sources - examples

Citing - when not a direct quotation:…Blogs can be a useful tool to increase

internal communication. (Wright 2006)

The reference list:Wright, Jeremy. 2006. Blog marketing : the

revolutionary new way to increase sales, build your brand, and get exceptional results. New York : McGraw-Hill.

Webpages

How you shouldn’t do it:

Literature list

The student card is your library card

This is your Patron ID. Use it to sign into My loans in Bibsys and renew your loans, reservations etc.

Help!

Information desks in the library Interlibrary loan Book a librarian and Ask the library Remote Access Training (library training, SPSS)

User manuals / help functions: printouts in the library and ”Help/FAQ” in the databases