Library Research

Julie Jones Nikki TummonLiaison Librarian Liaison Librarianjulie.jones@mcgill.ca nikki.tummon@mcgill.ca

August/September 2008Orientation 2

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Introduction to the Library

Understanding popular vs. academic sources and books vs. journals

Using the Library Catalogue to find books

Defining your research question and building a search

Using a database to find academic articles

Today’s Topics

McGill’s library has six million

items:

Books, DVDs, music, e-

journals…

Scope of information sources for doing research

ENCYCLOPEDIAS DICTIONARIES

BOOKS (General topic)

BOOKS (Specific topic)

BOOKS (Collections of Essays)

NEWSPAPERS MAGAZINES JOURNALS

GENERAL

SPECIFIC

Access point for all McGill Library services and resources

McGill Library Website

www.mcgill.ca/library

What is a Library Catalogue?

Tells us what the library owns & where to find it

Can you find this book in the catalogue?

Title:

Peddling poison: the tobacco industry and kids.

Author:

Clete Snell

Publisher and publication year:

Praeger, 2005

Where is my book on the shelf?

Text

HA 76F75

HA 76

G441974

HB 45

H321989

HB 61

C313

HC514M92

21922

HC32

C25 1994

HC100

U555

HC320A1

HC450N371978

HC895G361877

9

http://library.artstor.org/library/welcome.html

What is an Academic Journal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeyR30Yq1tA&NR=1

An academic journal is…

Popular Academic

Purpose: •Entertainment•Current awareness•Research summaries

•Report original research•Review previously published studies

Audience: •General public •Students, scholars, researchers

Authors: •Journalists•Often named

•Researchers, academics•Always names

Characteristics •Short(er) articles•Ads/photos•Published daily/weekly/monthly•Reviewed by editors•No citations

•Describe research methodology•Published quarterly/annually•Reviewed by editorial board/peer-reviewed•Includes citations/bibliography

Popular vs. Academic

Words are the key to research

?Soda

Pop

Soft drink

Coke

Drink

Beverage

Sample research question

What causes young people to take up

smoking tobacco?

The concepts in the question are:

What causes young people to take up

smoking tobacco?

Research Tool Kit

Step 1: Describe your research topic

and circle the main concepts

Create a concept table

CONCEPT 1: Young people

CONCEPT 2: Smoking

Brainstorm synonyms

CONCEPT 1: Public transportation

Public transport transit subway bus

CONCEPT 2: Wheelchairs wheelchair

CONCEPT 1: Young people

Teenagers Adolescents Youth High school students

CONCEPT 2: Smoking Cigarettes

TobaccoNicotine

Research Tool Kit

Step 2: Write down your main

concepts in the table and brainstorm

synonyms.

AND

OR

Combining with Boolean operators

Increases results

Decreases results

Combining with Boolean operators

AND

smoking AND teenagers

OR

smoking OR tobacco

Building your search

CONCEPT 1: Public transportation

Public transport transit subway bus

CONCEPT 2: Wheelchairs wheelchair

CONCEPT 1: “Young people” Teenagers OR Adolescents OR Youth OR “High school

students”

CONCEPT 2: Smoking Cigarettes OR Tobacco OR Nicotine

AND

Truncation

*Teen**

ExperimentTeenTeensTeenagerTeenagers

Running your search

CONCEPT 1: Public transportation

Public transport transit subway bus

CONCEPT 2: Wheelchairs wheelchair

CONCEPT 1: “Young people” Teen* OR Adolescent* OR Youth OR “High school

student*”

CONCEPT 2: Smok* Cigarette* OR Tobacco OR Nicotine

AND

Research Tool Kit

Add truncation symbols to your

keywords where appropriate.

Research Tool Kit

Step 3: Run your search in either

Academic Search Complete or

ProQuest Central

(two user-friendly multidisciplinary

databases)

“Exact phrase”

Examples:

“young adults”

“Stephen Harper”

“climate change”

Important search tip!!

Both Google and Google Scholar index open access articles (in addition to proprietary content).

PubMed Central Canada provides free access to a stable and permanent online digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed, health and life sciences research publications. It builds on PubMed Central in the U.S. through the submission of Canadian-funded research.

Social Science Research Network (SSRN) - Repository of current social science research. “Encourages the early distribution of research results by reviewing and distributing submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers around the world.”

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit open-access scientific publishing project aimed at creating a library of open access journals and other scientific literature under an open content license.

Free access to academic sources

OWL: Purdue Online Writing Lab

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/

Citation help

questions?