Information research skills for projects and dissertations classics2015
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Library Services
Academic Skills: Information & Research Methods for Projects & Dissertations
May 2015Russell Burkelibguides.rhul.ac.uk/
Library Services
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Aims of the session
• Overview of Library Services available to support your essay research
• Step 1 - Plan and prepare a literature search
• Step 2 - Use LibrarySearch and subject specific resources to find information
• Step 3 – Evaluate your sources
• Step 4 – Adapt & refine your searches
• Step 5 - Manage your references (& generate bibliographies using RefWorks)
• Access eresources off-campus
• Using other libraries
Step 1: think about your own research topic & related concepts and write down the keywords that you need to search for
Library Services
Developing your search strategy
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“How Athenian democracy worked in the fifth century BCE.”
Main concepts Alternative terms1. Athens Athenian …
2. Democracy Democratic system, Political system, Government
3 fifth century BCE Before Common Era, 5th Century, BC ….
In pairs: try the example on the Classics Training page for this session
Step 2: Use your Library Subject Guide and select the resources or types of resources you think you would need to use to carry out your research
Library Services
Now that I know what I want to find out:
What resources would I use?
See part 1 of the following prezi for an overview of the types of material available via the
Library:
http://prezi.com/24tl5r36eel5/developing-your-search-skills/
Library Services
Selecting information sources
Library Subject Guides: libguides.rhul.ac.uk/
Online databases (eresources): libguides.rhul.ac.uk/Databases
LibrarySearch: librarysearch.rhul.ac.uk
Senate House Library catalogue (& eresources): ull.ac.uk
Other internet resources…
These can also be found on the main Library webpageGo to the Classics Subject Guide & search on JSTOR and Loeb
Library Services
Now that I have found some information on my topic:
How do I know that it is what I want and good
quality material?
Library Services
Reviewing & evaluating your research
See: evaluating information sourceshttp://prezi.com/q5jglgamre6c/evaluating-information/
Library Services
Reviewing & evaluating your research
Do you have enough / too
much information
?
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?
Step 4: think about how you combine keywords and enter your search queries in your selected eresources (adjusting terms as you need to)
Library Services
Now that I know what I want to find out & where to find the resources:
How do I carry out relevant searches to
find information on my topic?
(By combining your search terms in meaningful way!)
See your Library Subject Guide > Training > Searching for videos & more help
Library Services
Combining keywords - AND
Narrow your search using AND (useful if you have too many results)
e.g. Virgil AND pathos
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Results containing VIRGIL
Results containing
BOTH TERMS
Results containing
PATHOS
ie. only brings back results where all the words searched for are included somewhere in the title, summary and/or full-text
Library Services
Combining keywords - too few results?
Broaden your search using OR (useful if you have too few results)
e.g. role OR function
17ie. brings back results where any the words searched for are included somewhere in the title, summary and/or full-text
Library Services
Making the most of synonyms
As well as searching for alternative terms, you can use wildcard characters ($ ? * -) to replace letters in search terms or to truncate a term:
Examples
theat* - finds theatre, theater, theatrical, etc.
wom*n - finds women, woman.
NB: Help pages in the online resources will explain which character is used as the wildcard
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Library Services
Combining keywords – phrase searching
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“Greek tragedy”
“Fifth Century BCE”
Use quotation (speech) marks to search for phrases where word need to appear next to each other (e.g. specific terminology, title of books / films, names & places).
Step 5: save the results that you need (references, abstracts, URL links, full text) and organise these so that you can find them when you need them & reference them in your assignments
Library Services
Now that I have the information (books, chapters, journal
articles, webpages etc) that I need:
How do I manage & reference them?
(You may have a lot of references and research material to keep track of!)
Library Services
Keeping track of useful items
• Emailing links to yourself
• Using the e-shelf in LibrarySearch• Log in to LibrarySearch
• Click on the star icon beside useful results
• Go to ‘e-shelf’
• Create baskets, email, export results
• NB - most other eresources provide these functions (you can do the same in JSTOR / ProjectMuse / MLA Bibliography / L’Annee Philologique )
• OR you can keep all of your references in ONE PLACE and organised them by topic, essay title or course etc. by exporting references to RefWorks – this is really easy to do!22
Library Services
RefWorks
Bibliographic reference management software
Capture, save and organise references
Create a bibliography for your essay from containing 1 to 1000 items in your Departments Referencing Style in seconds!
Access it via the Library Subject Guides (Citation & Referencing)
Contains online self-help tutorials
Sign up to a free Library RefWorks training session:
Check the Library Information Skills Training Session on the Subject guide: http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/
Library Services
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'.
This is quick and easy to set up and works on PCs, laptops & Macs
Go to the IT Services website to find out more:
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/it/home.aspx
Library Services
Using other libraries
Royal Holloway students all get free access to Senate House Library (SHL):
take along your RHUL Id card if you want to borrow books or use the study space there.
Online registration for SHL’s eresources:see the ‘Beyond RHUL’ section on the Library
Subject Guides for more information
Access to other Libraries using SCONUL Access:
see the ‘Beyond RHUL’ section on the Library Subject Guides for more information
Library Services
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Questions?
Russell Burke
Information Consultant
2-07 Bedford LibraryRoyal Holloway University of London
Russell.Burke@rhul.ac.uk
01784 414065
Please remember to always check:
• LIBRARY SUBJECT GUIDES
• @RHUL_Library on TWITTER
• the Library’s FACEBOOK PAGE
for the latest information and updates!
Leo Reynolds. Flickr. CC-BY-NA
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