www.usq.edu.au/library Researching your projects: how to find better information to use in your assignments Prepared by the Engineering & Surveying Faculty Librarian in consultation with the Faculty www.usq.edu.au/library Research methodology So you have a project to complete? Your research methodology, or ‘plan of action’, will help focus your thinking on how and what you need to do www.usq.edu.au/library Where do you start? Analyse your project topic VERY carefully What information resources will you need? Which information sources will be the best ones to use? Why? Where will you find these information sources? How do you search the Library journal databases or the Web to find the information you need? 1 www.usq.edu.au/library Which information resources will you need? Type of resource Type of information Books (online or print) In-depth information, give an overview of a subject Reference resources (online or ‘Fast facts’ eg: dictionary print) definitions, encyclopaedia entries Journal articles (online or print) In-depth information on a very specific topic. Recent information. Newspaper articles) online or print) Brief, basic, factual. Very recent. Free web resources Varies from falsities to fast facts to scholarly articles. Very recent. www.usq.edu.au/library Where will you find these information sources? The Library Catalogue is useful for locating books (you can also read online books from it) The Library Databases are useful for finding journal and newspaper articles Search Engines, Subject Directories and Web portals are useful for locating information www.usq.edu.au/library How do you search these resources? Identify the information needs of your project Identify your project’s key concepts and main ideas Then, write these into searchable terms DON’T just type the assignment question into a search box! 2 www.usq.edu.au/library Analyse the topic Assignment Question Key Concepts Main Ideas Evaluate Information - Use or Repeat Search Search in Online Sources Write these in searchable terms www.usq.edu.au/library Analyse the topic - identify the key words and phrases Your Project requires you to: Write a report on the structural safety of a wooden bridge which will be used for heavy mining vehicle traffic. Consider several factors in writing your report including the maintenance of safety standards of the bridge, its load bearing capacity and causes of the deterioration of its timber. www.usq.edu.au/library Analyse the topic - identify key words Write a report on the structural safety of a wooden bridge which will be used for heavy mining vehicle traffic. Consider several factors in writing your report including the maintenance of safety standards of the bridge, its load bearing capacity and causes of the deterioration of its timber. 3 www.usq.edu.au/library Writing the topic’s key words and phrases into searchable terms 1. Combine your search words with the Boolean connectors AND OR NOT. This way you will retrieve better results when searching the Library Catalogue, journal Databases and the Web. 2. Search for all variations of a word by putting an asterisk * (or star) after the main stem of a word. Safe* will retrieve articles which contain the word safe as well as those which contain the word safety 3. Think of other words which mean the same as your search words and use them in your search statement in order to retrieve more articles. www.usq.edu.au/library Are there other words you could use? For more results, use synonyms or words having the same or similar meaning as your search terms. Connect these with your search terms using OR: Wood* OR timber maintain OR maintenance decay OR deterioration vehicle OR traffic You could try this search strategy for the sample project: (wooden bridge* or timber bridge*) and (deteriorat* or decay* or safe* or maintenance or maintain*) www.usq.edu.au/library Searching online sources – the Catalogue for books The Topic: Write a report on the structural safety of a wooden bridge The Problem: Finding books when you don’t know any author or titles The Solution: The Catalogue’s Keyword search 4 www.usq.edu.au/library Searching the Catalogue for books www.usq.edu.au/library Finding one good book leads you to others Click on this subject heading To see what other books the Library has on the subject www.usq.edu.au/library Can’t get to the Library to borrow a book? s e-Book are the answer More than 20,000 online books are available through the USQ Library website. 5 www.usq.edu.au/library The Library’s eBook collections On the Library home page click on e-Books www.usq.edu.au/library Here they are www.usq.edu.au/library Online book from eBRARY 6 www.usq.edu.au/library Online book from NetLibrary www.usq.edu.au/library eBooks are listed in the Library catalogue Click here to go to the book www.usq.edu.au/library INTERMISSION – time to take a break! 7 www.usq.edu.au/library Searching online sources – Library databases (for journal & newspaper articles, standards and statistics) you can search these databases anywhere you have Internet access you will need to log on with your USQ username & password because they are Library subscription resources you can download, print or email articles from these databases the firm you gain employment with may subscribe to a journal database, practice using them now ! www.usq.edu.au/library Finding the journal databases on the Library Homepage Click on the dropdown list and select Engineering and Surveying databases www.usq.edu.au/library Databases for Engineering and Surveying Here they are 8 www.usq.edu.au/library Let’s start with EbscoHost Choose this one www.usq.edu.au/library Using EbscoHost - Academic Search Premier So that you do not miss useful resources, search broadly at first by using only 2 search words or phrases. Search for your terms in the abstracts of articles Select your date range Articles in these journals are checked by experts before publication www.usq.edu.au/library EbscoHost search results Article abstract Click here to read the article 9 www.usq.edu.au/library Need Australian articles? Try Informit Here it is www.usq.edu.au/library Informit entry page Click here to go to more databases www.usq.edu.au/library Let’s try 3 Informit databases 10 www.usq.edu.au/library Searching Informit databases Use Guided Search Search for your terms in the abstracts of articles www.usq.edu.au/library Informit search results www.usq.edu.au/library Compendex Engineering Village simply the best When you aren’t sure what search words to use, look at Controlled terms 11 www.usq.edu.au/library Click here and you’ll be able to see this article, provided the Library subscribes to this journal www.usq.edu.au/library What can I do if the full-text isn’t available? Don’t panic – the article may be available in another database or the Library may even hold it in print. This journal is held in print format in the USQ Library www.usq.edu.au/library Choose Journal title 12 www.usq.edu.au/library Searching online sources – the Web Always keep a record of what websites you visited. It’s not always possible to find the same site again if you don’t. ‘Every day, between four and eight million pages are created on the Internet and the same numbers of web pages change or disappear. The average life span of a web page is just 36 hours.’ NU Domain 2003 www.usq.edu.au/library Free web resources vs Library resources USQ Library resources Free web Books provide accurate basic information on a topic There is no guarantee that what you find on the Web is accurate. Evaluate what you find. Books give a comprehensive overview of a topic You won’t find comprehensive overviews of topics on the Web Journal databases contain articles which are reviewed by experts before being published No quality control. Anyone can publish anything on the free web. Evaluate what you find. Journal databases are far more likely to contain trustworthy accurate articles Some sites are not trustworthy and contain biased inaccurate information Journal articles remain in databases Articles can disappear from the web at any time www.usq.edu.au/library Finding the websites recommended by your Faculty Librarian Click here 13 www.usq.edu.au/library Your Faculty Librarian’s recommended websites www.usq.edu.au/library Evaluating websites by their URLs You can trust websites with these domain names: .edu or .ac (in Japan & the UK) – used for websites of educational institutions such as universities .gov – used for government websites But you can’t automatically trust websites with these domain names: .com – used by commercial businesses (businesses are trying to sell their product – so you need to keep this in mind) .org – used by organisations (anyone can set up an organisation – so you need to evaluate whether the information on their websites is trustworthy and unbiased) .net – anyone can set up a website using this domain name www.usq.edu.au/library More help on evaluating websites USQ Library’s eHelp tutorial Evaluate what you find RDN tutorials: Internet Civil Engineer Internet Electrical, Electronic & Communications Engineer Internet Materials Engineer Internet Mechanical Engineer 14 www.usq.edu.au/library There’s a lot of misinformation out there on the web Be guided by the websites your Lecturers and Faculty Librarian recommend best websites for engineering & surveying best Search Engines and Web Portals www.usq.edu.au/library The Web can trivialise the research process DON’T rely solely on information found on the free Web for your assignments DO use books and journals from the Library’s collection – your lecturers will give you more credit for using these www.usq.edu.au/library Finally Make sure you reference the online sources you use in your assignments. Helpful Library links: Harvard Referencing Guides Information for off-campus students To request Book loans and photocopies Library services to off-shore students DocEx for InterLibrary loans For 4th Year Project students and PostGrads 15 www.usq.edu.au/library List of references .NU Domain Ltd 2003, .NU Domain Ltd, USA, viewed 27 January 2006, http://www.nunames.nu/Press/royal.cfm. Calvert P J 2001, ‘Scholarly misconduct and misinformation on the World Wide Web’, The Electronic Library, vol.19, no.4, pp. 232-240, viewed 23 June 2004, Emerald Insight. Meola, Mark 2004, ‘Chucking the checklist: a contextual approach to teaching undergraduates web-site evaluation’, Libraries and the Academy, vol.4, no.3, pp. 331-344. 16
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