Library workshop – Basic Business Research

Why not come along the next Library lunchtime workshop. Details are: -

Wed 2nd December
Basic Business Research
Anderson Room, Riccarton Library (top floor)
12.15-13.15

Information, presentation-style workshop for students on finding good quality company, industry, market reseach and financial information.  No need to book.

You can bring your lunch and we’ll provide the tea and coffee.

See more information on our workshops page.

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

 

Google workshop cancelled – 25th Nov

Unfortunately, due to illness, we’ve had to cancel the following workshop planned for today – 25th November.

“Google – I’m feeling lucky!”
12.15-13.15
Anderson Room, Riccarton Library

You can view the slides for the workshop or contact the presenter  for more information on what’s covered.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

Workshop: Finding the best of the Web

Staff from Intute  will be running a session called Diamonds in the Rust on Thursday 26th November (12.15-13.15 in the Anderson Room, top floor of the Riccarton Library).  This session will cover -

• how to locate good web resources for education and research
• demonstrate tools that develop critical thinking skills
• show some of the best online educational resources

The Internet is often the first point of call for any kind of information.  If finding the right information is proving difficult, time-consuming and frustrating, this workshop can help.

Diamonds in the Rust
Anderson Room, Riccarton Library top floor
12-15-13.15

Informal session. No need to book – just come along.  Bring your own lunch. We’ll provide the tea and coffee.

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian
 

 

 

Google Workshop

Why not come along to the Library’s next lunchtime workshop on how to make the most of Google for your academic work? Called “Google – I’m Feeling Lucky!”, it covers searching Google effectively and introduces the following topics:

• advanced search techniques
• Google book search
• Google Scholar
• evaluation techniques

This workshops will be a presentation-style session with lots of opportunities for questions.

Venue: Anderson Room, Riccarton Library, top floor
Time: 12.15-13.15
Date: Wed 25th November

No need to book – just come along. Bring your lunch along. We’ll provide the tea and coffee.

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

The Cite is Right – repeat workshop

Clueless about citing and referencing? Think it is a lot of hassle and don’t quite see the point?

If you missed the first ‘Cite is Right’ workshop, why not come along this repeat session to find out more?

We’ll cover what it’s all about, when you need to do it (and when you don’t), why you might want to take the time to get to grips with it (e.g. how it can help in avoiding PLAGIARISM) and how to make the whole thing a bit easier.

Venue: Anderson Room, Top Floor, Library
Date:  Thurs 5th November (repeat of Wed 14th Oct session)
Time: 12.15-13.15 (optional additional half hour for questions at the end)

No need to book. Just come along. You can bring your lunch and we’ll provide the tea and coffee.

For more information on this and other workshops see with Libary Workshop Programme webpage

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

search50 – using search results

With search⁵⁰ you can select the areas you want to search in, and define your search much like a CompartheMarket.com for library resources. Instead of cheaper car insurance you are presented with lists of search results from different resources.

The results page displays results in the order they are returned. The activity bar on the right hand side of the screen indicates if the search is completed, but you can interact with the search results as soon as the first list is displayed. Search results are displayed in sets. You can click on the database name in the list below the activity bar to go to the first set of results returned from that resource. You can click on Next Set… for more results. At the top of the results page you have the option to reorder the results returned by Author, Title or Date.

For more information on a search result, click on View. This will be displayed in the resource that result was returned from. You can also link directly to the full-text of a journal article, where it is available, from the results screen. It’s not uncommon to search an online database only to find that you do not have full-text access to the article you find. In most instances this is because the Library does not maintain the necessary subscription.

If there is no Full-text or PDF View link, the seven thousand online academic journals and 150 online databases we do subscribe to can be found on the Databases and Journals pages on the Library website. It is also possible to order articles located through search50, but unavailable in online full-text, through inter-library loan. There’s an icon on the resource list in search⁵⁰ indicating whether access on a particular resource is to full-text, partial full-text, or in the case of library catalogues, no full-text.

You can select all results returned from a specific resource, or make your own selection. This information can then be printed out, emailed to your choice of email account or saved. There are various options for the format in which you can save results, whether as a text file or for use with EndNote or other bibliographic software. You also have the option to export directly into EndNote or RefWorks.

For more information or assistance with any aspect of online searching or support for EndNoteWeb contact the Library, browse through some of our previous postings on this blog, and look out for our information skills workshop sessions.

Iain Young
Resources Manager

How to use EndnotWeb – Library workshop 15th October

Are your reference notes in a mess?  Do you find citing and referencing a bit of a chore?  This could be the session for you!

Come along to find out how EndnoteWeb can help you:

• collate, annotate and organise your references
• create reference lists and add citations in your text automatically
• cite-while-you-write, saving time and effort

If  you’re jotting down details of sources you read for your course work on scraps of paper that get lost or if you often can’t find the page number of the really good quote you want to use, EndnoteWeb can help.

This session could be useful if you don’t want to spend 3 days typing up your reference list!

Venue: Anderson Room, Library top floor
Date: Thurs 15th October OR Wed 11th November
Time: 12.15-13.15 (optional additional half hour for questions afterwards)

No need to book. Just come along. You can bring your lunch and we’ll provide the tea and coffee.

For more information on the Library’s workshop programme see our programme webpage.

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

search50 – tips for searching

search⁵⁰ lets you complete a keyword search that returns information from a variety of different online sources, much as you would expect from Google. Just enter your chosen search terms in the box and click Search. You can be as general as you like with the terms chosen, but if you’re searching across a wide range of resources you should expect a long list of results, again like Google. Try to focus your search by using the subject categories.

There are some basic steps you can take to conduct a more effective search, and to make sure you retrieve more relevant results.

You can use the drop-down menus to select where search terms appear in your results. The default is Keyword searching, but select All and your results list will include records where your search terms appear anywhere within the record. You can be more specific and look for search terms within defined parts of the record, the Title, Author names, words from the article Abstract or Subject terms.

You can also decide how the search terms are linked together. Select And, Or or Not from the drop-down menus for Boolean Searching. Quite simply, selecting And returns results which include both terms, Or returns results which include one or other of the terms, and Not returns results which include one term but not the other. The default is And.

It’s also possible to truncate, or shorten, your search terms using a question mark – ?. Search for “manag?” and your results will include records containing the words manager, management, managed or managing. You can use the ? within words as well. Search for “organi?ation” and your results will include records containing organization or organisation. search⁵⁰ will also, on occasion, offer you alternative suggestions for search terms on the results page through Did you mean. This can be useful to correct spelling mistakes.

If you need assistance or advice on any aspect of online searching contact the Library, browse through some of our previous postings on this blog, and look out for our information skills workshop sessions.

Iain Young
Resources Manager

search50 – subject based online searching

The Library subscribes to over seven thousand online academic journals and 150 online databases to support learning and teaching, and research at the University. Little wonder knowing which resources to use is a challenge, not to mention how time-consuming it can be to search them all individually.

When you are working on an essay or assignment, or conducting a literature search, search⁵⁰ will let you combine a selection of the Library’s full-text journals, online resources and the Library Catalogue and find lots of different resources online with just one Google-like search.

It’s unlikely that you would ever want to search across all 50 resources, and we wouldn’t recommend it as a search strategy, so we have made it easy for you to select those most relevant to your subject. Check the box next to a subject category and all resources covering that subject will be selected for searching. It’s possible to combine subjects if required. You can also click on the subject category and be taken to a page listing only those resources relevant to that subject.

Where we see the true benefit of search⁵⁰ is as an excellent starting point, especially if you don’t know where to begin searching for a topic. If you know which resources you’ve found most useful in the past you can check the box next to them in the resource list and define your own combinations. For more sophisticated and flexible searching you’ll want to go through the individual database interfaces. You can do this by clicking on the resource name in the list. We will continue to support our Databases and Journals pages on the Library website for information on, and access to, the full range of resources available from the Library.

If you need assistance or advice on any aspect of online searching contact the Library, and look out for our information skills workshop sessions.

Iain Young
Resources Manager

search50 – searching across online resources

 

A new service from the Library will make it easier to search our electronic resources. Now you can search across the most useful 50 online resources, and be provided with a merged list of results, through search⁵⁰

search⁵⁰ provides coverage of all subjects taught in the University, and resources have been selected by our Subject Librarians for their relevance. You can select from 50 resources, and search either individually or by subject category. It’s important to realise that not all databases are included in search⁵⁰.  Whilst search⁵⁰ doesn’t offer the sophisticated and flexible searching available through the individual database interfaces, it’s an excellent starting point, especially if you don’t know where to begin searching for a topic.

search⁵⁰ is available both on and off campus. You will be prompted to log-in using your University ID and password, just as you would log-in to HW Webmail. Links can be accessed from results displays to take you directly to full text articles, where these are available. Search results can also be printed, or saved directly into EndNote.

If you have any questions or comments regarding any aspect of search⁵⁰ please contact the Library. We will continue to refine and improve this service and would welcome your input. More information on search⁵⁰ will be posted here on spineless? through the week.

Iain Young
Resources Manager