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Library & Information Training for Geographers:Advanced Research Skills for Projects and Dissertationshttp://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/geography

Autumn 2014

Emma Woods

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To begin …

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http://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/library

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Session Outline

• Developing a search strategy• Searching information sources –hits & tips

• Citation and referencing• Using other libraries• Accessing online resources off-campus

• Open Access

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My essay question / research topic:

What do I want to find out?

LibraryDeveloping a search strategy

1. Identify keywords that define your research question

2. Select relevant information sources

3. Evaluate and modify your searches

4. Select and save results

5. Locate copies of promising texts

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Identifying key concepts & keywords

Alternative terms e.g. governance / policy / regulation

Alternative spellings e.g. colour or color; theatre or theater

Changing terminologye.g. global warming / climate change

LibraryAnalysing your query - an example

Finding information on: ‘population trends in Fiji’

Main aspects Alternative terms

1. population trends demographics, statistics or data

2. Fiji South Pacific, southern hemisphere, Oceania

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Activity 1

Think about your own dissertation / essay topic / research interests and spend a couple of minutes planning your search.

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Now that I know what I want to find out:

What resources would I use?

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Activity 2

Spend 2-3 minutes noting down which resources or types of resources/information you think you would use to carry out your research

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Selecting information sources

Library Subject Page for Geography:

Online databases

LibrarySearch

Senate house library catalogue

Other internet resources

These can also be found on the main Library webpage

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Types of Resources

BooksJournals Statistics

Websites Databases Reports

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Now that I know what I want to find out & where to find the resources:

How do I search for information on my

topic?

LibraryReviewing your results – hints & tips

Too many results?

Narrow your search using: AND

e.g.

population AND trends

“population trends” AND “southern hemisphere”

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Reviewing your results – hints & tips

Too few results?

Broaden your search using: OR

e.g.

population OR trends

population OR demographics

“population trends” OR Fiji

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Wildcard searching – hints & tips

Use wildcard characters ($ ? * -) to replace letters insearch termsExamples bio* - finds biology, biosphere, BIOS, etc. *owl* - finds howl, howler, owl, owls, bowl, etc. wom*n - finds women, woman, etc.

NB: Help pages in online databases will explainwhich character is used as the wildcard

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Activity 3

Go to your subject pages and select a database or use LibrarySearch and try out a few searches using your keywords and some of the search techniques we’ve just looked at

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Now that I have found information on my topic:

How do I know that it is what I want and good

quality material?

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Reviewing your research

Do you have enough / too

much information

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Is it relevant to

your research?

Does it answer the

whole question?

Is the information

current / within the date you require

Do you need to review

your underlying research question?

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Now that I have the information (books, chapters, journal

articles, webpages etc) that I need:

How do I manage & reference them?

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Selecting & saving results & full text

Most databases allow you to:

Select and save results to a ‘folder’

Save, download or email results to yourself

Save search ‘history’ & re run them

Always make a note of your search queries and which database you used.

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Citation and referencing

Acknowledge the author of the source

Enable the item to be traced

Evidence of scope and depth of your research

Reference style – the layout & format of your bibliography - CHECK WITH YOUR DEPARTMENT

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RefWorks

• Bibliographic management software

• Capture, save and organise references

• Access it via the Online Resources A-Z lists

• Contains online self-help tutorials

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http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/training

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Legal & ethical issues

Copyright:https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/library/teachingsupport/copyrightadvice.aspx

Plagiarism:https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ecampus/academicsupport/studyresources.aspx

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Access online resources off-campus

Royal Holloway ‘Campus Anywhere’ (VPN)The only way to access all of our electronic resources off campus is to install the Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, known as 'CampusAnywhere'. 

How to set up the VPN connection: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/it/faq/itfaqs/vpn/faqwebvpn.aspx

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Using other libraries

Senate House Library

SCONUL Access Scheme

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Any questions?

For more help & guidance on any of the topics explored in this course, or for one to one training sessions, please contact the Library Information Consultant for Geography:

Emma Woods emma.woods@royalholloway.ac.uk

and see the subject guide http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/Geography

Further information can also be found on the Library website www.royalholloway.ac.uk/library