Finding what you need in the Library and online

Clare Ackerley, Academic Liaison Librarian for Computer Science May 2015

Session aims

After today you should:

• be aware of the resources available

• be able to select appropriate resources to use

• know some effective searching techniques

Planning your search

• Define what you want

• Identify your search terms

• Select sources to search

• Conduct search

• Record references and strategy

• Obtain relevant articles, books, etc

• Evaluate information

• This all takes time!

Find key search terms» Synonyms butterfly/lepidoptera, cancer/neoplasm» Plurals liberty/liberties, child/children, mouse/mice

» Word stems educat* will find education, educational, educationalist, educating

» Alternative spellings organi?ation will find organisation or organization

Phrase searching "mental health", "higher education"

Proximity advertising NEAR/2 campaign

Synonyms OR neoplasm

Additional keywords/concepts AND therapy

Excluding irrelevant results NOT drug

Search strategy techniques

Use OR to combine search terms of similar meaning. Particularly useful when there are many appropriate terms that could be used to search one concept.

For example:» cancer OR tumour OR tumor OR neoplasm» “higher education” OR university OR college» child OR children OR girl OR boy OR minor

OR searches for any of the words in a recordOR will make your search broader, retrieves more results

Combining your search terms with OR

Use AND to combine the different concepts of your search.

For example:» cancer AND chemotherapy AND children» business AND survive AND recession» "art history" AND teaching AND multimedia

AND finds documents in which all terms occurAND retrieves fewer records, narrows down the results

Combining your search terms with AND

Library resources

Searching the catalogueOnly view items that are available

Refine by Subject

Searching everythingChoose to expand search beyond our resources if you wish

Limit to peer-reviewed journals

Refine your results to select resource type. E.g. conference proceedings

Your Subject Guide

Subject guides – journals and databases

Provides links to the most relevant databases and full-text journal collections for you

BUT….

Not everything

For a comprehensive list use the e-resources guide

• Emphasis on peer-reviewed (high quality) titles within specific subject areas

• Sophisticated search capabilities» e.g. can combine searches using your search

history to produce more complex strategies

• Systematic indexing» many have own subject headings i.e. controlled

terminology

• Good options for saving search results

Why use the “paid-for” databases?

• Paid-for (subscription) databases» require a login

• Interdisciplinary databases, for example:» Web of Science, Scopus

• Subject databases, for example:» INSPEC, PsycINFO, MathSciNet, MEDLINE, EconLit,

Business Source Premier, Westlaw UK, ERIC, Empire Online, ARTbibliographies Modern, ABELL

• Access via E-Resources Guide or Subject Guides

Subject database searching

Some key Computer Science databases

Web of Science Core Collection– General Computer Science 1900 - date– citation searching– Proceedings section for conferences & meetings

• 1990 - present

– Register to customize your search experience– Recorded training materials available. Links on the

database.

Some Key Computer Science Databases

INSPEC• leading abstract publication for

information in physics, electronics, electrical engineering, computer science and information technology.

- updated weekly- 1969-present- Also an archive available dating back to

1898

Electronic resources – e-journals• IEEE Xplore All IEEE and IET journals,

magazines, transactions and conference proceedings, and all approved and published IEEE standards, excluding drafts.– Complete backfiles to 1988 – Selected content back to 1913

• ScienceDirect – World’s largest full text database of scientific journals, 2,500 journals and 20,000 ebooks

Locating full text of the papers you discover

Look for Find It @ York button

Electronic resources – e-booksLecture Notes in Computer Science – archive also available.

• Access through Computer Science subject guide or YorSearch.

• There are also many more e-books available on YorSearch from other e-book providers such as Dawsonera and MyiLibrary

Electronic resources – theses

• York theses » finding York theses in the Library and online

http://www.york.ac.uk/library/collections/theses» White Rose eTheses online http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk

• Theses in the UK » ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland (E-resources

guide)» EThOS http://ethos.bl.uk

• International theses» Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations» DART-Europe Etheses Portal» OAIster (Open access resources)

Electronic resources – web search engines and subject gateways

• Web search engines• Google and Google Scholar• CiteSeer – scientific literature digital library and

search engine• Internet subject gateways

• TechXtra – cross searches 31 different collections for articles, websites, books, latest news, theses, in engineering, maths and computing

Electronic resources – web search engines

Google ScholarFull text freely available

Available from York

Google Scholar off campus

Go to:• Settings• Library links• Enter University of York• Save

Google ScholarAdvantages DisadvantagesMore results – a range of resource types,e.g. books, journal articles, theses

Too many results(?)

Simple to search Less quality control. Coverage: what is and is not covered? Duplication. Inclusion of some non-academic materials

Links to full text items available at York Inconsistent bibliographic information

Few sophisticated search options, e.g. difficult to apply limitations

Effective Searching - Reviewing• When you have some results ask yourself

– do they answer your question?– are they appropriate for your needs and of

sufficient quantity AND quality• Be prepared to search more than one

database for a comprehensive search– INSPEC does NOT cover everything you need– if you are unsure of which ones to use - ask!

• Leave enough time to find, and read the full articles!!!

You need to evaluate the information you find:

http://library.leeds.ac.uk/skills-finding-and-evaluating-information

Look at the section on evaluating information

Evaluating your results

Troubleshooting Searches• Too few or no results?

– are my keywords the right ones? – am I using the ‘right’ database for the subject?

• Too many results?– should I include more specific term(s)?– could I eliminate unwanted concepts from my

results?

• British Library» minibus to British Library at Boston Spa (Near

Wetherby) » further information at:

www.york.ac.uk/library/other-libraries/british-library

• SCONUL Access» enables you to visit and borrow from other

institutions, apply online http://www.york.ac.uk/library/other-libraries/sconul/

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Other libraries – for items not at York

• White Rose Research Online» York, Leeds and Sheffield shared repository» access to material normally behind a subscription

barrier (Open Access)» items can also be deposited» more information about WRRO at: http

://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/

• Other repositories» SHERPA Search of UK repository content:

www.sherpa.ac.uk/» OpenDOAR global search: www.opendoar.org

Repositories

• University of York supported packages:» EndNote (Desktop) and EndNote Web/Online

» Integrates with Word, IT Services courses and tutorial

» Paperpile» Web-based via Chrome, integrates with Google Docs and

Google Scholar

• Other packages:» Mendeley, Zotero, etc freely available but not

supported at York» Plugins not installed on IT Services computers

• See Organising your references:» http://www.york.ac.uk/library/info-for/researchers/references/

Managing information

Information for Researchers web pages» www.york.ac.uk/library/info-for/researchers

Subject Guides» http://subjectguides.york.ac.uk

University Library web pages» www.york.ac.uk/library/

Where to find more information

Getting Help

Clare Ackerley

lib-compsci@york.ac.uk

Thank you for listening

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