library hits library hits: helpful information for trinity students/staff library eresources for...
TRANSCRIPT
Library HITS
Library HITS: Helpful Information for Trinity Students/Staff
Library eResources for Sciences
Michaelmas Term 2013Trinity College Library Dublin, College Street, Dublin 2
Trinity College Library Dublin
Before we begin…
• Don’t forget our physical resources – not everything is available online:– Six million volumes– Dozens of thousands of print journals
• And the Library is one of the best places you can study:– Housemates annoying you? – Neighbours too loud?– Printer out of toner?– Internet dongle out of credit?
• Most Science material is in the Hamilton Library, not here in the BLU
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Library eResources
An eResource is a term which can be used to describe, for example:
–A database–An electronic journal (e-journal)–An electronic book (e-book)–An online newspaper–CD-ROMs – not used much now!–The Library catalogue (Stella Search)
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Will this work at home?
• All our online resources can be accessed off campus by username and password
• You have to go from a link on the Library website, or you won’t get a working link – you can’t just Google the name of the journal or database if you want it to work off campus
• Click a link in Stella and you’ll get the following off campus…
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Off Campus Access
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Where are these resources listed?
• All our databases are listed on our Databases and E-Books page
• All our e-journals are searchable on our E-Journals Only page – there are thousands!
• HOWEVER, they are all listed in our Stella Search too…
• Most e-books will also be in Stella• Individual resources will be listed on your
Subject Librarian’s page – use the Subject Guides link
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How do you access the Library's eResources for your subject?
Trinity College Library Dublin
How do you access the Library's eResources for your subject?
Trinity College Library Dublin
What is a Database?
• A database is an organised collection of data
• Databases allow you to find a specific sub-set of data – subjects, authors, journals, title words…
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Basically…
• Use databases to find items you don’t know about already – for example, on subjects you need to write about in an essay
• Use the Stella Search Catalogue tab to find items you already know exist – e.g., articles from reading lists or mentioned in lectures
• Using databases means you don’t have to go to each journal individually to search it
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What can you find in a database?
• Trinity College Dublin Library subscribes to 350+ databases, and there are further databases that are available free on the web
• Some databases cover only books• Some cover only journal articles or newspaper
articles• Some cover only theses• Most databases cover a range of publication
types
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Doesn’t Google have all this?
By searching only subscription databases and limiting your search to scholarly or peer-reviewed sources, you can virtually guarantee that all materials retrieved will be appropriate for a research paper
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Which are the best databases to use?
• There are links to the FULL list of dozens of databases for your subject on the Databases and E-Books page, and on your Subject Librarian’s page
• This can be a bit overwhelming, so…• On your Subject Librarian’s page, look for
“Subject Librarian Recommends…” for a short list of the most useful ones
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Which are the best databases to use?
• Some databases cover all subjects, such as Google Scholar or the Web of Knowledge
• Some concentrate on the sciences, such as ScienceDirect and Scopus (searchable together as SciVerse) or the Web of Science
• Some concentrate on one science only, such as Reaxys for chemistry
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“Search Strategies” for Databases
• Create a search statement using keywords • Use databases appropriate to your topic. Use
keywords and controlled language • Use Boolean searching (AND, OR & NOT)• Change approaches as necessary – gathering
information is not a linear process • Continue to identify applicable keywords and
controlled vocabulary to go back and check in the selected database(s) and other resources
• You will often be asked to include your search strategy in your essay
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Utilising Database Features
• To search effectively it is important to become familiar with the database. Knowing shortcuts and quirks of the database, will save time
• Some important characteristics to identify are which element truncates words, how to search for a phrase, and how the Boolean operators are used, and what limits can be applied
• Refer to the database guides for help
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Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT
• Using the operator AND will retrieve articles that mention all the terms somewhere in the article
• Using the operator OR between the two terms will retrieve articles that mention any of the terms– The use of AND generally will retrieve a smaller set of
results– The use of OR generally will retrieve a larger set of
results• If you wanted to exclude terms, you would use
the Boolean operator NOT• Effective use of Boolean operators is essential to
sophisticated research
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Basically…
•AND will give you less
•OR will give you more
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Truncation
• Truncate search terms to retrieve all variants of a termTruncation symbols vary between e-resources. Examples include: *, ?, !, % and $– For example: If you search on the term plagiar* in ProQuest
databases, you will retrieve articles that contain any words that begin with the letters plagiar, including: plagiarism, plagiarize, plagiarizing, plagiarized, plagiarizer, plagiarizers, plagiarist, etc.
• Using the truncation symbol will allow you to broaden your search to include materials on any variant of a term
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Limiting
• Most databases have limiting features that will let you focus the results of your search
– You may be able to limit your searches to retrieve only scholarly or peer-reviewed articles
– You can also limit to particular date ranges or particular journals
• Limiting your searches will allow you to narrow your search, resulting in a smaller list of more relevant materials
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Types of Searches
• Most databases have an Easy and an Advanced search function
– Easy or Basic Search• Often these only have one search box and operate in
a similar way to Google
– Advanced Search• Gives more control to the user• Allows for a more refined search• Often allows multiple search terms in multiple fields
• You’ve done a search, found a reference…• And the full text is there, great!
• However, if there’s no full text link button:– Find and click the “link resolver” TCD button - may show the
text: “Check TCD e-journals”; or an image, such as
• This links to a piece of software which checks if the Library has the article you want, either in another database or in hardcopy, anywhere in the Library’s collections
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Where’s the full text?
Link resolver (Linksource) menu
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Clicking on the TCD icon searches the Library’s e-journal collections and the full Library catalogue, for both electronic and hardcopy forms of the required title
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E-Books
• E-book collections are listed with our databases under Databases and E-books on the Library’s homepage
• Most e-book single titles, within those collections, can be found by searching Stella
• A small percentage of e-books in our collections can only be found by searching the provider or publisher’s database or platform
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Questions?
• For SUBJECT queries, contact your Subject Librarian via the Subject Guides page
• For TECHNICAL queries, contact Clíona Ní Shúilleabháin at [email protected]
• For GENERAL queries, contact the Duty Librarian in the Berkeley or Hamilton Libraries