As we discovered in Week 2, an essential addition to any reputable research paper (and the third element of the 18 Things framework) is a well-written abstract. By capturing the essential qualities of a text in a concise and structured manner, the abstract can invaluably assist information-gatherers in their task.
How many journal articles can you gather, read, and consider in one hour? If you're like me, then probably just one or two (depending on prior familiarity with the subject.) Usefully, Emerald allows users to view full, structured abstracts for every document in their list of search results (just click the "Show all abstracts" link in the top-right corner.) I find this to be incredibly helpful, allowing me to process entire pages of articles swiftly by scanning through the basic ideas and arguments of each piece. Articles which lack a full abstract tend to be insubstantial, and not very useful. If an article is going to be of interest to my research topic (and therefore worth downloading) then I can usually find out in seconds by reading the abstract.
As far as I can tell, this feature is actually unique to Emerald. Google Scholar and ACM Digital Library only display the first ~50 words of the abstract or introduction on their search results page, whilst LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) will only offer a 25-word snippet unless you click for the full 'Citation/Abstract' page (or open the 'Preview' pop-up window) for each result. Can we measure our information-gathering-efficiency according to the number of clicks and hyperlinks it takes to access the information we actually need?
Obviously you can't limit your search to Emerald; seasoned information-gatherers know to make use of a wide variety of different online resources for finding articles. There's a lot out there, so save yourself some time and make the most of what the author has helpfully provided. Have a quick read through the abstract and decide if the article is actually relevant to your study (before filling up your desktop with dozens of unread .PDFs.)
Showing posts with label databases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label databases. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Google & database searching - top tip!
Hello all
Today I'd like to share with you my top tip for database/google searching, based on my own experience and on what we've learnt from Alastair Allan in the past 2 weeks.
This may seem obvious to people with much experience using databases but I think it is still worth mentioning - make use of advanced search functions! Don't just type in whatever your query is into the first search box you see - always use 'advanced search' if it is available. You're not missing out on anything by using Advanced, and you may find much more (and more importantly, you stand a better chance of finding useful information). Advanced Search gives you a lot more options - for example (depending on the database you're using), it may have options to search only for certain types of information (journal articles, e-book chapters, etc); search in article title, abstract or full text; or search between certain dates only - and most databases 'advanced search' will include multiple text boxes seperated by boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT) making it easier to construct a good query. Most databases will give you a chance to 'refine' or 'edit' your search after your initial attempt - at this point you can start experimenting with different query terms - but always start from Advanced.
So to summarise - always use 'Advanced Search' in databases - you have nothing to lose by doing so!
Today I'd like to share with you my top tip for database/google searching, based on my own experience and on what we've learnt from Alastair Allan in the past 2 weeks.
This may seem obvious to people with much experience using databases but I think it is still worth mentioning - make use of advanced search functions! Don't just type in whatever your query is into the first search box you see - always use 'advanced search' if it is available. You're not missing out on anything by using Advanced, and you may find much more (and more importantly, you stand a better chance of finding useful information). Advanced Search gives you a lot more options - for example (depending on the database you're using), it may have options to search only for certain types of information (journal articles, e-book chapters, etc); search in article title, abstract or full text; or search between certain dates only - and most databases 'advanced search' will include multiple text boxes seperated by boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT) making it easier to construct a good query. Most databases will give you a chance to 'refine' or 'edit' your search after your initial attempt - at this point you can start experimenting with different query terms - but always start from Advanced.
So to summarise - always use 'Advanced Search' in databases - you have nothing to lose by doing so!
Saturday, 6 October 2012
The Information Universe & me
Good day everyone!
I want to share a couple of examples of my experience with 'the information universe'
Firstly, when I was working as a Graduate Trainee in a library at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), students would naturally come to library staff for help with various research problems. Most commonly it was simply a case of showing the student(s) how to make best use of the library's physical and electronic resources. The campus where I worked taught healthcare subjects (nursing, phsyiotherapy etc) so it was also important to find the most up-to-date information possible. Let's say in this example I am showing how to research a Nursing question.
The first port of call would be the library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue). Using variations on the search terms, and then where necessary filtering results by site (e.g. searching only at our campus would be more likely to locate relevant books/journals) and by date (if we want only recent material).
Next, if the student then wanted to find journal articles relevant to their subject, I could show them the subject-related databases subscribed to by MMU. One option would be to use 'search it', a service which searches multiple databases at once. This makes a good first choice for some queries, but the search options there are limited, so I could also show them the individual databases - such as ScienceDirect and Internurse. I would give a demonstration of how to use these, especially how to use the search functions effectively.
Secondly, as part of the Graduate Trainee programme at MMU, we had training in Presentation Skills which required us to prepare 2 practice presentations on any topics we liked. Now, I hate to give people incorrect information about anything, so one I had chosen my topic I researched it as best I to make sure everything was factually correct! In these cases though I had to use information freely available online - the subjects were a bit obscure for MMU libraries! I'll focus on just one of them here - a place known as 'Thornton Abbey' in Lincolnshire.
Some people may frown on this, but once I had chosen my subjects, my first action was to look them up in Wikipedia. This was just to get a good starting point for the subject! Next, I checked out the links given in Wikipedia - in this case, to English Heritage and to a local history blogger. Next, some more Google searching led me to other websites (such as the University of Sheffield's own site - turns out the archaeology department were carrying out a dig last year and this year - this was before I knew I wanted to apply to Sheffield myself!). Finally, I wanted to use some pictures in my presentation, and I had to make sure they were usable under copyright law. Wikimedia Commons and Flickr were useful for finding pictures usable under Creative Commons licenses.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to point out two fairly different aspects of the information universe! If you want to know more about the Abbey, here's the University of Sheffield Archaeology Department's website for it.
I want to share a couple of examples of my experience with 'the information universe'
Firstly, when I was working as a Graduate Trainee in a library at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), students would naturally come to library staff for help with various research problems. Most commonly it was simply a case of showing the student(s) how to make best use of the library's physical and electronic resources. The campus where I worked taught healthcare subjects (nursing, phsyiotherapy etc) so it was also important to find the most up-to-date information possible. Let's say in this example I am showing how to research a Nursing question.
The first port of call would be the library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue). Using variations on the search terms, and then where necessary filtering results by site (e.g. searching only at our campus would be more likely to locate relevant books/journals) and by date (if we want only recent material).
Next, if the student then wanted to find journal articles relevant to their subject, I could show them the subject-related databases subscribed to by MMU. One option would be to use 'search it', a service which searches multiple databases at once. This makes a good first choice for some queries, but the search options there are limited, so I could also show them the individual databases - such as ScienceDirect and Internurse. I would give a demonstration of how to use these, especially how to use the search functions effectively.
Secondly, as part of the Graduate Trainee programme at MMU, we had training in Presentation Skills which required us to prepare 2 practice presentations on any topics we liked. Now, I hate to give people incorrect information about anything, so one I had chosen my topic I researched it as best I to make sure everything was factually correct! In these cases though I had to use information freely available online - the subjects were a bit obscure for MMU libraries! I'll focus on just one of them here - a place known as 'Thornton Abbey' in Lincolnshire.
Some people may frown on this, but once I had chosen my subjects, my first action was to look them up in Wikipedia. This was just to get a good starting point for the subject! Next, I checked out the links given in Wikipedia - in this case, to English Heritage and to a local history blogger. Next, some more Google searching led me to other websites (such as the University of Sheffield's own site - turns out the archaeology department were carrying out a dig last year and this year - this was before I knew I wanted to apply to Sheffield myself!). Finally, I wanted to use some pictures in my presentation, and I had to make sure they were usable under copyright law. Wikimedia Commons and Flickr were useful for finding pictures usable under Creative Commons licenses.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to point out two fairly different aspects of the information universe! If you want to know more about the Abbey, here's the University of Sheffield Archaeology Department's website for it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)