English

Information for your Dissertation

Library Skills

Linda Crane Liaison Librarian for the Arts lcrane@liverpool.ac.uk

PreparationSearch tips

Resources - some searching – mainly what is ‘out there’

Reference management software

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called

research, would it?Albert EinsteinGuide to ‘getting there’

Research is the act of going up alleys to see if they are blind.

PlutarchStop you going down the same alleys

What today is about

PreparationSearch tips

Resources - some searching – mainly what is ‘out there’

Reference management software

Types of information you will need

Importance of preparation – the bare bones of your dissertation in less than an hour???

Resources – not just the obvious

Bringing it all together – a brief mention of reference management software

What today is about

Looking for a variety of relevant, quality resourcesNeed to evaluate and analyse those resources

GoogleThe leading Internet search company, whose primary business mission is to organize the world's information.

Anyone can write a webpage

Anyone can write/edit a Wikipedia entry

Types of information

Primary, Secondary & Tertiary sources

Primary.

Original materials which have not been filtered through interpretation,

condensation, or, often, even evaluation by a

second party.

Novel

Secondary.

Information about primary, or original, information, which usually has been modified, selected, or

rearranged for a specific purpose or audience

Article critiquing the novel

Tertiary.

Information which is a distillation and collection of

primary and secondary sources

Encyclopaedia with an entry on the author

The types of information that can be considered primary sources may vary depending on the subject discipline, and how you are using the material

DairiesLettersManuscripts

Types of information -decide what you need

Established facts and figures

General information on a topic

Reviews of the literature of a topic

Publications of recent research results

Primary sources – actual documents or scanned images of original texts

Scholarly debates

Reference books- encyclopaedias, ‘companions to’, biographies

Books of collected articles, text books, research monographs, scholarly websites

Journal articlesBooks of collected articles

Journal articlesProceedings of conferences

On-line digitised collections,Library’s Special Collections and Archives.National archive organisations

Journal articles, newspapersWebsites of relevant organisations

Define your topic.

What is it you want to say? What is the scope?

Literature, women and politics in Renaissance England

Literature

Fiction

Play

Drama

Women

Female

Gender

Politics

Government Renaissance England

?

Preparation is key

Do a rough and ready keyword search on the catalogue

Choose a few relevant items - organise your thoughts

Print books

Added keywords. Defined your topic.

Defined the scope.

Literature, women and politics in Renaissance EnglandLiterature

FictionPlay

DramaPoetry

Linguistics

Investigate the portrayal of real

people in drama

WomenFemaleGender

MonarchWhoreWitch

PoliticsGovernmentParliamentMinisters

Renaissance England

TudorElizabeth INorthern

Renaissance

Compare two

dramatists

Could also search reference works e.g. Oxford Reference On-line

Oxford Reference On-line

May also want to look at other Thesis & DissertationsGood for keywords / layout/ ideas / bibliographies

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Search

Relationships between your keywords (Boolean searching)

Shakespeare AND Sonnet

Playwright OR Dramatist

Renaissance NOT Italian

Search tips

TruncationPolitic* Politics Politician Political

Wild card Wom?n Globali?ation

“Search for a phrase in quotation marks”

Check the Help pages on electronic sources before you start

Record what you find

Make sure you have enough detail to find the information again

Source used and the date you used it

Searches undertaken and results found

Keywords used, date range searched, location of material

Full bibliographic details of the material found

Take a photocopy of the title page

Record search strategies

Be flexible – review searches

Remember to:-

Plan ahead

Inter-Library loans

Visits to archives

Interviews

Keep up to date

RSS feeds

Set up alerts in databases

Resources

3 main access points

Off campus access

Catalogue – all the items, print and electronic the Library has. Mainly used for in-depth works (print & ebooks)

Catalogue features

Click on the 'Search' link associated with any of your preferred searches in the list and your search will be quickly executed for you again, finding any new items that have been added to the catalogue as well as the ones you found before.

What books are ‘out there’ that the University of Liverpool doesn’t have?

VisitInter-library loan

Special Collections & Archivesfinding primary resources

University of Liverpool Special Collections:books/manuscripts. Primary sources

Primary resources: University of Liverpool Archive

Ted Hughes

Search results – click on full record

Primary resources: external archives – the Archives Hub – available via LibGuides or Google search

Full record: where it is, what it consists of, how to accessArchivist will advise you as to copyright

Journals

Use University catalogue to search for a journal (s) that fits your topic.

(Search for it using keywords and limit to journals)

Browse through back copies – don’t just search

Catalogue can only find journal titles – not articles

DISCOVER

Easy to search as GoogleCross searches a number of databases at any one time

Contains peer reviewed materialCan search for journal articles

Is largely material not freely available on the Internet

Can find articles that are full text or just bibliographic citations

Also has the University of Liverpool Library Catalogue loaded on to it as well – in theory a one stop shop for

information

Accessing DISCOVER

Simple search on DISCOVER

Renaissance AND drama

Automatically defaults to material available at Liverpool

If want external content take off limiter

External content results

If want full text but not printed books

Un-tick

Tick

Limit publication dates to 2012 -2013

Accessing full text

What if no PDF?

Individual databases

Why bother if DISCOVER so good?

Not all databases are loaded onto DISCOVER

Easier to customise individual databases.

Easier to manipulate individual database

LibGuides brings resources for English together

Where can you find individual databases?

Electronic library LibGuides

Literature online database (LION)

LION Homepage

Browse complete contents

Browse contents 2

Browse: Author Index

Browse author index(Literary movements)

Browse author index (Literary movements)Search results

Results for Kingsley Amis

LION- use my archive

Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics Contains 271 full-text books

Information on Margaret Atwood

Shakespeare Survey on-line – now separate database

British Literary Manuscripts Online 1660 -1900

Primary sources – digitised Aphra Behn manuscript

Conference papers

Conference proceedings papers are often more up to date than journal articles

Often published in journals together as body of work.Brings together ideas in a particular area of interestShows who is working in the field – can look for other articles

written/booksGood for projects were there is little established literature & ‘hot

topics’

Not peer reviewedOften need time to see how effective these ideas are. This can be a

plus – what didn’t work (and why?) – what made an academic change their opinion?

Zetoc (under general databases in LibGuides)

Search for wom?n and Renaissance literature

Just the record is good for authors / keywords

http://www.conferencealerts.com/search?searchTerm=english+literature&x=0&y=0

Conference papers 2Subscription element - browse for contact names / website for

no charge

What conferences do your lecturers attend /speak at? Sometimes authors will put up their papers on their websites via Google Scholar Web of Knowledge contains ISI Proceedings, so you can search by keywords for

conference papers on your subject

Just to mention a few more resources.

Don’t forget TLS Historical Archive!

The back numbers of the TLS have long been legendary as a store of treasure for anyone interested in 20th century literature.

Newspapers – good for updating a dissertation

Lexis Library

Pros Cons

Average date of digitization 1996 (decent archive)

Contains UK nationals and many local papers

Good for comparing tabloid and broadsheet

Good for seeing how a national story is treated locally

No foreign pressNo photographsDifficult to interpret gravitas

of a story

Lexis Library homepage need to click on ‘news’ tab

Lexis Library

Library PressDisplay

Pros

Foreign & UK Press

Fully digitised

Fully searchable

Can browse latest editions

Good for comparing how the same story is treated in different countries

Cons

60 day archive

University has only 4 licences – only 4 people can use it at any one time

Library PressDisplay

British Cartoon Archive

Websites

Evaluating sources - websites

Accuracy - is the information reliable and error free?

Authority - is the source of the information reputable?

Coverage - does it provide the evidence or information you need?

Currency - when was the information published / updated?

Objectivity - Does the information show bias?

If unsure of how to use internethttp://www.vtstutorials.co.uk/default.aspx?s=1

Recommended websites

National Library websites – e.g. British Library

Websites 2

Links to web pages on LibGuides

Managing references

store and manage your referencesformat the in-text citations and

bibliographies for your documents

RefWorksEndnote

Referencing LibGuide(Also available via Architecture LibGuide)

RefWorks

Training Sessions

Summary

Types of information

Preparation

Catalogue /Special collections / Archives Hub

DISCOVER – one stop search engine

LibGuides - individual databases

Websites

Reference Management tool – RefWorks

Linda CraneLiaison Librarian for the Artslcrane@liverpool.ac.uk