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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
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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
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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?
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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.
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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
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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!
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Analyse the topic
Assignment Question
Key Concepts
Main Ideas
Evaluate Information - Use or Repeat Search
Search in
Online Sources
Write these in
searchable terms
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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*)
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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
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Searching the Catalogue for books
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Finding one good book leads you to others
Click on this
subject
heading
To see what
other books the
Library has on
the subject
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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.
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The Library’s eBook collections
On the Library
home page click
on e-Books
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Here they
are
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Online book from eBRARY
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Online book from NetLibrary
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eBooks are listed in the Library catalogue
Click here to go
to the book
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INTERMISSION – time to take a break!
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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 !
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Finding the journal databases on the
Library Homepage
Click on the dropdown list and select
Engineering and
Surveying databases
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Databases for Engineering and Surveying
Here they
are
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Let’s start with EbscoHost
Choose
this one
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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
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EbscoHost search results
Article
abstract
Click here
to read the
article
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Need Australian articles? Try Informit
Here it is
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Informit entry page
Click here to go to
more databases
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Let’s try 3 Informit databases
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Searching Informit databases
Use Guided
Search
Search for your
terms in the
abstracts of
articles
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Informit search results
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Compendex Engineering Village
simply the best
When you aren’t
sure what search
words to use, look
at Controlled terms
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Click here and you’ll be able to see this article,
provided the Library subscribes to this journal
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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
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Choose
Journal title
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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
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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
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Finding the websites recommended
by your Faculty Librarian
Click here
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Your Faculty Librarian’s recommended
websites
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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