Research Skills for the Honours Project - For 2015 History students

Research Skills for the Honours Project

Library Workshop for History Students

Chris Chan Information Services Librarian http://about.me/chancp

27 April 2015

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize the variety of scholarly sources you will be expected to use in the Honours Project so that you conduct research of appropriate scope and depth

• Understand the benefits of discipline-specific databases in order to effectively find information on your Honours Project topic

• Select the best reference software for your needs so that you can easily manage your sources

How you will learn today

• Mini-lectures

• In-class quick polls

• Demonstrations

Get set up for the quick polls!

Go to this URL:

http://pollev.com/hkbulib

1. Information Sources for the Honours Project

Quick Poll #1• Imagine that you are an Honours Project supervisor

• You have three students - on your handout you can see the bibliographies of their Honours Projects

• Which student has produced the best bibliography showing a good variety of sources?

• Spend 2 minutes discussing with the person sitting next to you and then respond to the poll:

http://pollev.com/hkbulib

What makes a good bibliography?

• Your bibliography reveals the quality, reliability, validity, and authority of the sources you have consulted

• Books, scholarly journal articles, dissertations, and primary sources should make up the bulk of your bibliography

• Websites can be useful, but make sure the source is authoritative. Not sure? Ask a librarian!

• The easiest way to locate and obtain scholarly sources is to use the tools and services on the Library website

Need some real-life examples?Library Honours Project Database• The Library maintains a database of past Honours

Projects that have scored high marks - the link is on the Library homepage and on the course guide

• Apart from the bibliography, you can look at examples of how to organise your project

Finding Scholarly Sources: Disciplinary Databases

Quick Poll #2

When you need to do a piece of academic writing (essay, project, etc.) what is the first information search tool that you will use?

http://pollev.com/hkbulib

Why Use Databases?• General search engines (e.g. OneSearch, Google Scholar) are great

for getting started on a topic

• However, for in-depth scholarly research like the Honours Project, disciplinary databases are important

• Example: Historical Abstracts

Focused Search

Broad search of the scholarly literature on ALL topics - science,

education, philosophy, etc.

Includes 2,300 academic historical journals,

covering world history from 1450 to the present

Specialized Search Limits

Databases provide special ways to limit results that are useful to the discipline.

For example, Historical Abstracts allows you to limit the results to those that cover a specified historical period

Citation information

It is vital that you note down all of the citation information for articles that you use in your Honours Project...

Article title

Journal title

Author Publication

Automatic Citation Generator

Databases help by providing automatic citation generators

You still need to double-check the result!

China Academic JournalsFor Chinese-language articles, China Academic

Journals is a key source:

Historical Abstracts Live Demo

Quick Poll #3

We have looked at a lot of the features that databases offer. In your opinion, what is the most important reason for using databases instead of Google when doing Honours Project research?

Provide your answer in a couple of sentences:

http://pollev.com/hkbulib

No PDF?!Sometimes you will find results where there is no

full text available from the database:

Click this button:Citation (no full text)

Check for direct link to Library e-

subscription

Check Library Catalogue for access to

electronic/print version

Yes

FULL TEXT!

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

YesYes

NoNo

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

• Obtain journal articles from libraries all over the world

• Free service - no quota or charges

• Article PDFs are delivered online within 3-4 working days

• More info: http://library.hkbu.edu.hk/about/ill.html

Obtaining Full Text Live Demo

Reference Software

Quick Poll #4

What software do you use to organise your research?

http://pollev.com/hkbulib

Reference management

• In your Honours Project, you will need to keep track of dozens of different sources (maybe even over 100)

• Keeping track of them will be difficult if you are not organised

• Generating citations for your sources will be extremely tedious and time-consuming

• Reference software can help!

Mendeley demonstration

Other options

• Depending on your specific needs, Mendeley may not be the best option

• Another choice is RefWorks, which is recommended if you will be using China Academic Journals a lot

• Links to more information on both are provided in the Course Guide

Summary

• You are expected to consult a range of different scholarly source types when completing your Honours Project

• Use disciplinary databases to make finding and citing scholarly sources easier

• Reference software can make your life a lot easier, but you need to start using it now

• Need help with searching, citing, organising, or anything else? Ask a librarian!

Honours Project Research Consultations

• This workshop has given a brief overview of the major skills and tools you will need to be successful in your Honours Project research

• For more help, you can request a one-on-one consultation with a professional librarian

• Information on how to get in touch with us is provided on the Course Guide

Thanks and Good Luck!